Munich Re, one of Europe’s big four reinsurance companies, is still expecting attractive opportunities at the key January 1st, 2026, reinsurance renewals, emphasising that traditional capital remains the backbone for risk transfer in a world where annual insured losses from natural catastrophes consistently exceed $100 billion.
In a press release and during a briefing on the second day of this year’s meeting of the reinsurance industry in Monte Carlo, Munich Re’s Stefan Golling, member of the Board of Management, highlighted the value of reinsurance.
“Traditional reinsurance capital remains the backbone for the transfer of all kinds of risks,” said Golling. “Munich Re has the best geographical diversification in the industry. Our capital strength allows us to retain all risks on our balance sheet and thus remain independent of retrocession markets and third-party capital.”
“We support clients in all regions, for all risks and all return periods. Our clients can rely on long-term capacities: Even after a mega event, such as an extremely powerful hurricane with an unprecedented market loss of well over US$ 100bn, our solvency ratio would still be well above the upper end of our target corridor of 220%,” he continued.
The rise in insured and economic losses from natural disasters was discussed, with Golling highlighting the $80 billion in insured losses in the first half of 2025 and overall economic losses of $131 billion, driven by the Los Angeles, California wildfires in January. Alongside the wildfires, Munich Re noted the impact of other so-called secondary perils such as floods and severe convective storms, which are driving more and more losses for insurers as reinsurers moved away from frequency risks.
“The insurance industry can assess these additional and changing risks and has proven to be a reliable risk partner with robust and growing capital levels: On average, traditional reinsurance capital has increased by around 5.6% p.a. in the last eight years. At the same time, there was no material inflow of capital from new market participants,” said Munich Re.
Both cyber and geopolitical risks were also discussed. On the former, Munich Re explains that exposures continue to expand and as such, the reinsurer expects the premiums in the space to reach $30 billion by 2030.
Golling revealed that Munich Re still has a 10-11% share in the cyber market, with the firm’s medium term focus on “the strategic expansion of a well diversified, profitable portfolio with a selective risk appetite and a focus on small and medium-sized companies.”
On geopolitical risks and the macroeconomic effects, which are driving heightened uncertainty, Munich Re feels that there will be “an increasing need to hedge against the resulting risks in the foreseeable future.”
“Long-standing and trusting client relationships, stable and reliable capacity, broad expert knowledge and the ambition to constantly explore and push the boundaries of insurability allow us, together with our clients, to turn existing uncertainties and challenges into new business opportunities,” said Golling.
Looking ahead to the upcoming renewals, Munich Re explains that it will continue to “resolutely strive for risk-adequate prices and conditions.”
