Latest Swiss Re Headlines

All the headlines from our Swiss Re Topic Page, ordered by recency.

News Briefs

Sep 19 2005 // European Insurers Estimate Katrina Losses: A disaster the scope of Hurricane Katrina hits everybody, not just U.S. carriers. The following are some of the preliminary estimates of anticipated losses from a number of...

Swiss Re Increases Katrina Claims by $700 Million to $1.2 Billion

Sep 12 2005 // Swiss Re has issued a major revision of its expected claims from Hurricane Katrina, increasing its loss estimates by $700 million from $500 million to $1.2 billion. The reinsurer is the first, but undoubtedly not the last,...

Swiss Re Estimates Katrina Claims at Around $500M

Sep 1 2005 // Swiss Re announced that, based on its preliminary estimate, it expects claims related to Hurricane Katrina to be in the range $500 million (CHF 625 million) before tax. “Swiss Re expects Hurricane Katrina to cost the...

Swiss Re Names Aigrain to Succeed Coomber as CEO

Aug 25 2005 // Concurrently with its 1st half earnings release (See related article), Swiss Re’s Board of Directors announced that Jacques Aigrain, currently Deputy CEO, has been appointed to succeed John Coomber, who will retire...

Swiss Re Posts $1.074 Billion 1st Half Net; Premiums Written Fall 4%

Aug 25 2005 // Swiss Re announced group net income of CHF 1.353 billion ($1.074 billion) for the first half of 2005, a 6 percent decline, compared to the CHF 1.441 billion ($1.144 billion) it earned in the same period of 2004.The...

Best Assigns ‘aa’ Rating to Swiss Re Senior Notes

Aug 11 2005 // A.M. Best Co. announced that it has assigned a rating of “aa” to the forthcoming Sw.Fr. 300 million ($235 million) senior notes to be issued by Swiss Re Treasury (US) Corporation and guaranteed by Swiss...

Swiss Re Tabs Hall as VP and Regulatory Counsel for Govt. Relations and Public Policy

Jul 12 2005 // Swiss Re has named Debra Hall to the newly-created position of vice president and regulatory counsel, Government Relations and Public Policy. Hall, who is responsible for working with government and industry officials on...

Swiss Re Capital Unit Names Gocksch Global Head – Market Risk

Jul 6 2005 // Swiss Re Capital Management and Advisory (CMA) has named Andreas Gocksch as Head of Market Risk. He will be based in New York and is responsible for managing the global market risk management function in CMA, reporting to...

Swiss Re Economists See Underwriting Discipline Key to Profitability

Jul 1 2005 // Kurt Karl, Swiss Re’s chief economist in North America, led the reinsurer’s Mid-year Economic and Insurance Industry Teleconference yesterday, June 30. The panelists forecast that a “modest rise in...

News Currents

Jun 19 2005 // Cat model reassessments cause rating and capital changesLast fall’s disastrous hurricanes provided some rough times for the catastrophe modeling industry. Consequently the principal cat modelers – Applied...

Best, S&P Comment on Swiss Re Group’s Results

Mar 18 2005 // A.M. Best Co. and Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services have both issued comments on Swiss Re’s 2004 earnings (See IJ Website March 17), indicating that they were in line with the rating agencies’...

Swiss Re Profits up 45% to $2.167 Billion

Mar 17 2005 // Swiss Re joined Munich Re in reporting strong 2004 results. The group reported net profits of CHF 2.5 billion ($2.167 billion) compared to CHF 1.7 billion ($1.474 billion) in 2003, a 45 percent gain, despite 2004’s...

Swiss Re Names Lu as Manager in Malaysia

Mar 1 2005 // Swiss Re today announced the appointment of Qin Lu as general manager of the company’s Malaysia branch. Andrew Davidson, who served as head of the branch since 2002, is relocating to Swiss Re in Australia to take up...

Swiss Re Notes Successful Renewal Season

Feb 14 2005 // Swiss Re said its “continued focus on profitable underwriting achieved attractive rates in the January renewal,” even as the world’s second largest reinsurer’s premium volume decreased slightly by 2...

Swiss Re Economist Comments on Fed Rate Raise; Non-U.S. Markets

Feb 3 2005 // Swiss Re’s chief economist Kurt Karl endorsed the 25 basis point (bp) Federal Reserve increase in the target fed funds rate to 2.5 percent. “Slow and steady wins the race,” he noted. “We still...

Arbitration on Central Fund Goes Against Lloyd’s; S&P, Best Comment

Jan 26 2005 // When six insurers,* led by Swiss Re, agreed to back Lloyd’s Central Fund with £500 million, with a maximum for any one year of £350 million (around $500 million at the time – $650 million currently) it seemed...

Swiss Re Securitization of U.S. Life Policies

Jan 24 2005 // Swiss Re CEO John Coomber is perhaps the industry’s strongest advocate for turning to the capital markets to securitize risks. So it’s no surprise when the world’s second largest reinsurer announced that...

Swiss Re Announces Aid Measures for SE Asia

Jan 10 2005 // Swiss Re announced that both the company and its employees “are actively supporting the relief initiatives to help the victims of the seaquake tragedy in the Indian Ocean and to aid the rebuilding of the worst hit...

Swiss Re Estimates Tsunami Claims Under $90 Million

Dec 30 2004 // Swiss Re has released a statement indicating that it expects its claims for the tsunamis in the Indian Ocean to be below CHF 100 million ($88.5 million). “On 26 December 2004 near the North of Indonesia, an...

Swiss Re Continues Investigation of Tidal Wave Disaster’s Insurance Implications

Dec 29 2004 // Swiss Re has issued a bulletin commenting on the Indian Ocean disasters, indicating that the complex nature of the event, makes it extremely difficult to project loss estimates.“Tens of thousands of lives have...