Christoph Jurecka, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Munich Re, one of the world’s largest global reinsurance companies, has said he expects demand for property and casualty (P&C) reinsurance to continue growing over the medium to long term, supported by rising levels of uninsured risk, emerging exposures, and the increasing impact of climate change.
Last week, the CEO responded to questions about whether recent changes in market conditions had altered the company’s view of the P&C reinsurance sector and what factors could eventually drive a rebalancing between supply and demand.
Addressing the outlook for demand, Jurecka said that his opening comments on market development, in its Q2’26 results call, were focused on the longer-term picture rather than short-term fluctuations. He explained that the company continues to see strong structural reasons for demand to increase in the years ahead.
“If you look at the demand first, there’s plenty of reasons why we are very convinced that the demand can only go up also going forward,” Jurecka said.
A key factor behind this expected increase is the continued presence of insurance gaps around the world. Many risks remain uninsured or only partially covered, creating further opportunities and demand for reinsurance protection.
Jurecka highlighted that new categories of risk are also emerging that require greater insurance capacity. These include cyber threats, artificial intelligence, expanding data centre infrastructure and other technology-related exposures that are becoming increasingly important for businesses and societies.
“There are new risks which are not to a large extent insured at this point in time. The most famous one is still cyber, then AI, and data centres. There’s a lot of risk which needs and requires cover going forward,” Jurecka stated.
He also pointed to climate change as a continuing driver of demand, noting that the long-term impact of changing weather patterns is expected to increase claims activity, reinforcing the need for insurance and reinsurance solutions.
“Climate change is clearly increasing the expected claims. We see a long-term trend which will not stop. So, there’s plenty of reasons why the demand will go up,” Jurecka added.
While Munich Re expects demand to strengthen, Jurecka said conditions have also been favourable in recent periods. He noted that the reinsurance industry has benefited from a relatively limited level of major loss activity, which has contributed to higher levels of available capital in the market.
However, Munich Re believes this current environment cannot continue indefinitely. Jurecka explained that the industry needs to account for a more normal level of claims activity over time, which would impact capital requirements and help restore a more balanced relationship between available capacity and demand.
“On the supply side, the entire industry has been benefiting significantly that we didn’t see a lot of loss activity in recent quarters for quite some time,” Jurecka said.
“There is a lot of capital around, which in a more normalised development of the industry overall would be needed for losses. We cannot hope for benign claims experiences forever,” he added.
Munich Re said that as market conditions normalise, supply and demand should gradually move back towards a more balanced position. “This will normalise over time, and therefore the equilibrium will go back to being more balanced between supply and and demand.”
Despite discussing the possibility of a future market adjustment, Jurecka stressed that current P&C reinsurance conditions remain favourable. He said profitability levels are still attractive and that Munich Re continues to see opportunities to renew existing business and write new contracts.
As a result, Munich Re continues to find attractive opportunities in the market, with the company able to maintain favourable terms and conditions across much of its business. “We are able to renew and write a lot of new business with attractive terms, conditions, and margins.”
Looking ahead, Jurecka concluded: “For the nearer future, we would expect to stay like that more or less. But as always in all businesses, it will be very path dependent. For example, it could depend on how the hurricane season will evolve this year.”
Munich Re’s assessment is that long-term demand growth will continue to be supported by expanding risk exposures, while future claims experience and capital availability will determine how quickly the P&C reinsurance market reaches a new balance between supply and demand.
