Reinsurance pricing may be at stable plateau, not a peak: Munich Re

Reinsurance pricing is at a plateau, not a peak, with demand and supply sufficiently balanced to prevent severe backtracking, the CFO of Munich Re has declared.

“What we currently see is a plateau,” CFO Christoph Jurecka told analysts gathered for his company's first quarter earnings call. “What we did observe: more or less stable price levels and discipline in the market.”

“I wouldn't even expect at this point for it to go down any further,” he said. “Why should it?”

Comments follow word that Munich cleared the April 1 renewals on a fractional 0.7% decline in risk-adjusted pricing across the full renewal book.

“We have an equilibrium of demand and supply at a very high and attractive level,” he said of the market's current balance. “I would just assume this continues.”

Terms and conditions, including notably the increase in attachment points achieved in the 2023 property cat market reset, are just as likely to be defended as rate or more so, Jurecka said of Munich Re and the broader market predilections. It’s one of those times when T&C “sometimes matters even more than price,” he said.

Munich Re's own appetite for looser underwriting is “absolutely zero,” he added of the Munich Re approach to the mid-year renewals. Reduced attachment points or loosened T&C is “clearly nothing we would want to go into.”

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