SCOR improves profitability at January renewals

At January renewals, reinsurer SCOR secured an increase in reinsurance underwriting profitability of approximately 1 percentage point, reflecting a 2.8 percent increase in pricing. Overall, the reinsurance top line is voluntarily reduced by 4.7 percent of premiums up for renewal at constant exchange rates.

“As reinsurance markets showed limited response to increasing loss trends, SCOR Global P&C took proactive measures to improve expected profitability, focusing mostly on reducing selected large quota share programs,” said SCOR in a release.

In specialty insurance, SCOR Global P&C witnessed positive momentum, with rate increases averaging approximately 15 percent for 2019, benefitting from an acceleration throughout the year. “This allowed SCOR Global P&C to seize opportunities and to continue its profitable growth trend,” said SCOR.

For the full financial year 2019, SCOR Global P&C experienced a strong gross written premiums growth, of 15.8 percent at constant exchange rates, to €7.1 billion ($7.81 billion). This was driven both by reinsurance (+16.2 percent) and specialty insurance (+14.4 percent).

Given the growth rates of the business in 2019 and at January 1, 2020, SCOR Global P&C reiterated its strategic plan assumption of gross written premiums annual growth comprised between 4 percent and 8 percent.

“These January renewals demonstrate SCOR Global P&C’s proactive management and responsiveness to market conditions with contrasting strategies between its reinsurance and specialty insurance underwriting platforms over the cycle,” said SCOR.

SCOR said the January 2020 P&C renewals show trends consistent with those observed during 2019, with accelerating rate increases on commercial insurance and gradual rate increases on the reinsurance side.

“A main difference has been an increase in loss trends for which reinsurance price increases only partially compensated,” said SCOR. “After a record three-year period of natural catastrophes losses, demand for reinsurance remains robust. Nevertheless, pricing gaps persist, as the reinsurance market capacity remains abundant and emerging risks such as climate change and social inflation are still to be fully incorporated into reinsurance prices.

“In this context, SCOR has built on its longstanding client relationships to proactively manage the pricing cycle, focusing on business compliant with its profitability targets and risk appetite.”

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