Global insurer and reinsurer SCOR is looking at its natural catastrophe budget and could increase it when planning for 2019 and beyond, according to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SCOR Global P&C, Victor Peignet.
The French headquartered re/insurer yesterday announced its results for the first nine months of the year, which, despite including higher than expected catastrophe losses and a lower than expected net income, revealed the firm is still on track to achieve its Vision in Action plan targets.
Speaking during the firm’s recent earnings call, Peignet said that its aim to maintain its net combined ratio at around 95% is realistic, something that will be impacted by the fact it may have to slightly adjust its natural catastrophe budget when planning for 2019 and the following years.
When asked to expand on this point during the call, Peignet said: “And we believe that next year, considering the nat cat activity and also the penetration of nat cat business in certain areas of the world, the increased frequency of midsize severity, we will probably, well it all depends also on our retro program, will renew. But, I think basically it will renew as is.
“So, we will be driven to probably slightly increase our cat budget, which will be compensated by the continued improvement of attritional, thanks to the pricing corrections that we have already basically benefited from and will continue to benefit from.”
He later added that if SCOR increases its nat cat budget, it believes also that its attritional will continue to improve, “thanks to the translation of pricing improvements into the P&L.”
