The world's second-largest reinsurer, Swiss Re, plans to double down on a small, new online insurance venture as its huge core business continues to be pinched by losses on natural disasters and what it calls unsustainably low premiums. Chief Executive Christian Mumenthaler told Reuters at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Friday that the company was "fired up" about the online venture, Life Capital, which hooks Swiss Re into the primary insurance market.
The Life Capital platform brings together Swiss Re, primary insurers and online retailers to sell life insurance and soon also general insurance to the large number of people who do not insure. Many households still do not fully insure their homes and cars despite a growing risk of fire, flood and hurricanes. "We talk to a lot of companies about this model and we believe it could become a big part of who we are," Mumenthaler said, adding that roughly half of the economic damage unleashed by catastrophes is typically uninsured. The concept of an online business model lay behind a recent approach by Japanese tech giant SoftBank for a stake in Swiss Re, Mumenthaler said. "There's an interesting thought behind it that has intrigued us, continues to intrigue us and has actually fired us up."
He said Swiss Re continued to explore non-equity tie-ups with online businesses and small or regional primary insurers to expand the Life Capital venture, but he did not elaborate if other big tech groups were among potential partners. He portrayed Life Capital as a strategic long-term hedge, with no respite in sight for premiums in the core business.
A growing band of investors have been piling into the underwriting market, willing to insure risks like natural and man-made disasters despite climate change, as an alternative to volatile stock markets and low returns on cash. "This is a sensitive area where the prices should go up but so far we have seen little movement after 2017," Mumenthaler said, adding that the annual renewal season had seen little uptick despite last year's devastating fires in California, Hurricane Florence in the Carolinas and typhoons in Asia. "It means the whole value chain is under significant pressure...Costs have become much more important over the last years and for the foreseeable future, so there will be continual pressure on costs, and not just for Swiss Re."