Munich Re regains S&P global reinsurer top spot with 21% NWP growth

Munich Re has overtaken rival Swiss Re to lead S&P’s ranking of global reinsurers based on net written premium figures for 2020.  

Munich Re’s net written reinsurance premiums rose to $42.9bn last year, up from $35.3bn in 2019. 

This $7bn surge took it ahead of rival Swiss Re, which wrote $39.8bn of net reinsurance premiums in 2020, largely flat compared with 2019.  

Hannover Re, ranked third, grew its retained reinsurance premium base by close to 20 percent as it reported NWP of $27.3bn. 

Berkshire Hathaway remains the highest ranked US reinsurer, generating reinsurance net written premiums of $19.8bn during 2020.  

None of the 10 largest reinsurers by NWP generated a sub-100 percent combined ratio in 2020, the analysis shows.  

China Re generated the best return on revenue at 5.9 percent, ahead of Reinsurance Group of America (4.3 percent) and Everest Re (3.5 percent).  

In Bermuda, Sompo International generated more than $3bn of net written reinsurance premiums in 2020, representing 56 percent year-on-year growth, ahead of PartnerRe and the recently combined SiriusPoint.  

Arch Re, RenaissanceRe, Everest Re and Ascot also generated in excess of $1bn of reinsurance NWP last year. 

Lloyd’s, which continues to rank as the largest reinsurer by NWP in the UK, generated $12.3bn of reinsurance NWP in 2020. This represented a 16.6 percent increase on the previous year. 

China Re ranked second on the back of 21 percent growth, with its UK NWP rising to $1.1bn. 

Aspen, Brit and Scor make the UK top five. 

In the US, life-focused Reinsurance Group of America remains the largest reinsurer on a NWP basis. 

RGA’s reinsurance NWP rose to $11.7bn in 2020, an increase of 3.5 percent year-on-year.

Swiss Re grew its US reinsurance NWP by 13 percent to $7.8bn to reinforce its strong position in the country, with Everest Re, National Indemnity and Swiss Life & Health America making up the top five. 

Munich Re recently claimed top place in AM Best’s ranking of the world’s largest 50 reinsurers by 2020 gross premium written (GPW), with the ratings agency tweaking its methodology to include only year-end reinsurance premium and no primary premium.