As the reinsurance industry approaches the January 1 renewal season, Carmen Bueso, Chief Underwriting Officer (CUO) Non-Life at Spanish reinsurer MAPFRE Re, notes that while the current market offers opportunities, the industry must avoid repeating past mistakes.
Looking ahead to the upcoming renewal season, Bueso, in an interview with Reinsurance News, described the landscape as “challenging” in many markets, particularly within property lines.
“Whilst some markets have experienced meaningful corrections in the previous years, we still feel underwriting discipline is important, and we shouldn’t make the same mistakes we as an industry made a few years ago,” the executive stated.
She continued: “Differentiation by client and building a diversified portfolio, in terms of lines of business and markets is crucial. Whereas the property lines might be under pressure on the pricing side, structures are still stable, and other lines of business, both Non-Life as well as Life, bring balance and diversification.
“Being able to bring multiline portfolios with good clients is the best way to manage the cycle.”
Bueso highlighted focus, discipline, and growth as the three primary challenges facing the reinsurance market heading into 2026.
“Keeping focus on underwriting discipline, selecting the best clients and providing them with the ultimate service while avoiding overexposure to growing perils is definitely a challenge. Increased retentions, whilst being a sound technical measure, and also encouraged by better retained results in the ceding companies, is not helping the growth ambition of reinsurers. Further, weakening currencies, especially the USD are also a growth challenge when you consolidate in EUR,” she said.
While the challenges are clear, as ever, these markets always present opportunities to firms like MAPFRE Re.
“To this end, we have been actively engaging with our clients and brokers early in the renewal period, and are very optimistic. We are broadening our product offering, being more active in lines of business such as Life, and growing in structured products, both Life and Non-Life. These products are not influenced as much by the pricing cycle as Property lines,” explained Bueso.
She went on to reveal that, in 2026, MAPFRE Re will keep on building a more diversified portfolio, geographically and by line of business.
“Fortunately, we are of an ideal size, big enough to be relevant and capable of providing a very comprehensive service, whilst still able to grow our lines with our preferred clients. Geographically we see nice opportunities for us almost everywhere, in EMEA we are very well represented already, and we still have room to grow in North America, APAC and LATAM.
“Our focus in Life, Accident and Health, and in Structured products, together with our already broad product offering will enable us build a better portfolio at this challenging time, while always maintaining underwriting discipline and client focus,” Bueso told Reinsurance News.
