Life and health reinsurance
In the coming years, as in the past, we expect to see a positive basic direction and further dynamic growth in international life and health reinsurance business; this can be attributed to the demographic changes in mature markets, progressive urbanisation and the ongoing formation of a stable middle class in emerging markets as well as the professional competition conducted among the six leading life reinsurers. The high entry barriers and long-term orientation of life and health reinsurance continue to act as stabilising structural factors in our markets.
On a global level the growth recorded in life and health reinsurance should continue to outpace the comparable growth on primary markets.
In this context we are seeing a shift in demand for new business away from developed markets such as the United States, United Kingdom and Germany towards emerging markets such as China, India, Brazil and Latin America. This trend assists internationally positioned life insurers and offers this group of clients – as multinational insurers – considerable opportunities going forward.
For Hannover Life Re, the evolution of our tried and tested “Five Pillar” model continues to shape the development of our business; new markets will remain the principal engines of growth over the coming two to three years. We also see good potential in the bancassurance sector, especially in emerging markets.
Our expansionary efforts are concentrated on the United States, Arab countries and the key emerging markets of Asia and Latin America.
The preparations for Solvency II, and in particular the stress tests performed by the EU (QIS – Quantitative Impact Studies), have led to a greater risk awareness among European insurers and highlighted the important role of reinsurance as a means of risk and capital optimisation. This is especially true of small and mid-sized insurers, specialty providers and mutual insurance companies.
With other markets such as South Africa, Australia and Bermuda also picking up on this model and aspiring to regulatory equivalence, we see the implementation of Solvency II in 2013 as an essentially global model.