In the face of challenging macroeconomic headwinds, SCOR is sticking to its governing principles and keeping hold of the risks that it chooses to underwrite, says Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Laurent Rousseau.
Speaking during a press briefing at the RVS 2022 event in Monte Carlo today, Rousseau laid out the factors contributing to the current economic uncertainty, and discussed how SCOR is continuing to find opportunities in this difficult environment.
Part of this strategy, he told press at the Monaco conference, involves identifying “sustainable” risks that SCOR is, for the most part, happy to keep on its own books, rather than looking to offload via retrocession.
Prudent risk selection is in fact seen by many as becoming easier for the larger reinsurers amid what Rousseau termed a shift from “an area of capital abundance to one of scarcity,” as demand for reinsurance capacity remains high.
“If you look at the environment, there has clearly been some headwinds, but the pace and the depth of change is really creating some opportunities for the stronger and better organizations,” the SCOR CEO explained.
“Now, how do we position ourselves? What is SCOR doing in this environment? Actually, we’re sticking to our strategic cornerstones. We are sticking to very strong principles as well. And one of these is that we are a risk taker, we’re not a risk trader,” he continued.
“What I mean by this is that even though we use retrocession, we keep the vast majority of the risks on our balance sheets. Our underwriters, people and culture are what we call gross underwriters. So when they underwrite a risk, they take it because they like it. They take it because they think it’s a good and sustainable risk. They don’t take it because they think they can make the margins with the backdoor through retrocession.”
Rousseau added that, against the backdrop of challenging market conditions, this risk-taking philosophy is the core driver of culture and the current business proposition at SCOR.
“Being a risk taker is defines us, it defines our people, it defines our underwriting ethos, and we will continue to do so and I think it makes a tremendous difference in this market,” he concluded.
