Close the protection gaps through partnership: TransRe

TransRe’s regional and global leaders tell SIRC Today why smart underwriting, data and trust drive long-term performance.

Key points:
Partnership powers regional opportunity
Precision underwriting builds resilience
Long-term trust defines TransRe strategy

Asia-Pacific remains the fastest-growing region for global re/insurance, but also one of the most complex. TransRe’s Rob Saville, president of Asia-Pacific, and Lisa Moser, president of the global portfolio management team, believe the potential lies not in relentless expansion but in partnerships grounded in data, discipline and trust.

“Our biggest opportunities are already within our grasp,” Saville told SIRC Today. “We have an existing portfolio of business with clients we already know, placed through brokers we already work with. Our best path to grow is with existing partners in the world’s fastest-growing region, with local teams supporting our clients to secure these opportunities.”

That focus is reinforced by TransRe’s long-established branch network and deep local presence, which help clients secure opportunities from trade credit to construction. Both executives see growth in the region as a chance to combine regional agility with global insight. 

“Our regional multiline underwriters monitor local regulatory and legislative developments, while our global traditional and professional liability product groups share lessons learned in other markets such as the US,” Moser explained. “We spend a lot of time ensuring our teams work closely together, offering advice and responding to local client and broker enquiries. That collaboration between markets and disciplines has become a central element of TransRe’s strength in Asia-Pacific.”

 “The collaboration between markets and disciplines has become a central element of TransRe’s strength in Asia-Pacific.”

The protection gap remains one of Asia-Pacific’s biggest challenges – and its biggest opportunity. Since 2008, the global re/insurance industry has paid $1.3 trillion of insured losses, compared with $3.5 trillion of total economic losses. As Saville pointed out, this leaves $2.2 trillion of losses uninsured; losses the industry did not collect premiums on, and communities it did not help recover. For him, the lesson is clear: re/insurers must do more to protect those most exposed.

Moser believes closing that gap will demand smarter knowledge transfer and collaboration, particularly as casualty lines expand under the influence of regulation, government initiatives and rising litigation. “Some markets are already well served by products such as D&O or professional liability, while others are developing rapidly,” she said. “Casualty is not one-size-fits-all. Every country is different and markets are developing at different speeds.”

“In China, the government’s promotion of the new low-altitude economy is bringing exciting innovations – and with that, significant potential liability,” Saville observed.

“Having said that, the main lessons from the US casualty market are to aggressively manage the cycle, keep in close contact with your reserving team, work your portfolio with a focus on risk selection, attachment points, limits and terms.”

Cyber risk presents a different kind of challenge; one that transcends geography. Moser described the exposure as “borderless” and said many insurers were now attempting to build regional portfolios as they try to diversify away from US exposures with new, regional buyers. “We are monitoring rates and aggregate management closely,” she added, as TransRe helps clients navigate the evolving landscape.

Catastrophe reinsurance, meanwhile, requires both technical precision and financial strength, as Asia-Pacific is a region regularly affected by natural perils such as volcanoes, earthquakes, typhoons, tsunamis and wildfires. “We manage portfolio exposures through tight attention to detail on each placement, combined with portfolio-level monitoring of accumulations and aggregate exposure,” Saville said.

That disciplined approach extends to the company’s deployment of catastrophe capacity across the region. TransRe works on a client-by-client basis with insurers that provide strong data and buy well-structured programmes at prices reflecting true risk. Over decades, it has paid billions in claims to regional insurers.

“The main lessons from the US casualty market [for APAC] are to aggressively manage the cycle.” 

“We monitor global insured losses closely, and it’s clear we are in a cycle of elevated catastrophe activity,” Moser said. “Retentions have risen, and pricing and terms have improved to pay for those higher retentions, but rates on some ‘secondary’ or non-modelled perils still don’t reflect true risk.”

“Our Berkshire Hathaway balance sheet means clients know we’ll be here to pay claims and trade forward after the biggest events,” Saville said. He highlighted that TransRe’s long-term approach to volatility was grounded in capital strength and reliability. “We add more value in the tail: less by trading dollars on first layers.”

For Saville, innovation goes beyond capital and into service. Client expectations, influenced  by digital convenience and instant access, are reshaping what service means in reinsurance. “Insurers are led and run by people who use those retail services,” he said. “We believe our best service, in addition to our rock-solid security, is the advice we offer and the terms and conditions on which we deliver our capacity.”

Moser compared the discipline of volatility management to “aligning financial, portfolio and underwriting perspectives in a three-dimensional puzzle, like a Rubik’s cube of risk”. That balance, she explained, allows TransRe to retain business 100% net while maintaining sustainable terms.

“It concentrates our teams on writing the best possible business on the most sustainable terms. We spend a lot of time on cycle management,” Saville added.

Data is increasingly central to that process. TransRe is currently running a beta project on its casualty portfolio that combines qualitative insights from underwriters, actuaries and claims teams with quantitative analysis from its Applied Data team.

“Can we find any markers among thousands of data points that predict how each treaty will perform against our portfolio?” Moser said. “Once testing is complete, we plan to share our work with key clients and hopefully partner with them to refine the insights further.”

Looking ahead, Saville expects Asia-Pacific to remain a market defined by differentiation and selectivity. “Wherever the overall market settles during any given renewal season, we will  have supported the clients we believe have the best chance of succeeding,” he said.

“We avoid a one-size-fits-all approach. This is a stock-picker’s market, not an index play; one where success depends on selective, data-driven partnerships.”

Moser believes that continued margin pressure across both property and casualty lines will test the industry’s resilience. “These are challenging times for underwriters,” she said. “I don’t see ‘fat’ or ‘excess’ margins in our industry. Instead, I see pricing that leaves little room for the unexpected—and it is the unexpected that changes the market.”

Rob Saville is president of TransRe Asia Pacific. He can be reached at: rsaville@transre.com.

Lisa Moser is President of TransRe’s Global Portfolio Management Team. She can be reached at: lmoser@transre.com.

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