Schweizerische Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft AG (Swiss Re AG) is a wholesale provider of reinsurance, insurance and other insurance-based forms of risk transfer. Dealing direct and working through brokers, its global client base consists of insurance companies, mid-to-large-sized corporations and public sector clients. From standard products to tailor-made coverage across all lines of business, Swiss Re deploys its capital strength, expertise and innovation power to enable the risk taking upon which enterprise and progress in society depend.

 

Our business

We have a strong reputation in innovative re/insurance and risk management solutions. We provide wholesale re/insurance products, insurance-based capital market instruments, and supplementary risk management services to Property & Casualty and Life & Health clients and brokers around the globe.

 

Property & Casualty

We provide traditional reinsurance as well as insurance for corporate clients. Combining global expertise and local knowledge, we provide clients with financially sound risk transfer solutions in all lines of business.

 

Life & Health

We are the leading provider of reinsurance to life insurance companies worldwide. With specialist knowledge of mortality and morbidity trends, we support clients with sustainable, pragmatic solutions. We also acquire closed life and health books of business which we administer through Admin Re®.

 

Asset Management

We manage the assets Swiss Re generates through its business activities. Our Asset Management division sets the Group’s investment strategy, ensuring that assets match our reinsurance liabilities while generating optimal investment returns.

 

Corporate responsibility

We have a long-standing commitment to corporate responsibility and strive to implement this across our business. Our performance has received high ratings from independent third-party organisations.

 

Comprehensive commitment

Swiss Re is committed to being a responsible company. Based on our Code of Conduct, we have a strategic approach in place that defines and drives key activities across the Group.

 

A climate change pioneer

We identified climate change as a major sustainability challenge almost 20 years ago. Ever since, we have put a special focus on this topic and created a number of innovative responses.

 

Accountability

We wish to be accountable to our stakeholders and regularly disclose information on our corporate responsibility performance. Swiss Re is a signatory to the UN Global Compact and is listed on leading sustainability indexes and ratings.

 

Our mission and priorities

Swiss Re continues to sharpen its focus on core business. Our mission is clear and simple: to be the leading player in the wholesale re/insurance industry.

What ‘wholesale’ means to us: focusing on large and complex re/insurance transactions with insurance clients, corporate clients and public sector clients – as well as with pension funds. We anticipate extreme scenarios and enable the risk taking that is essential to the development of enterprise and progress in society. This is what Swiss Re is all about.

Being the leading player in the wholesale re/insurance industry means that we strive to be:

 

The preferred partner

For our clients, we want to be the preferred partner. This means winning clients’ trust and confidence, and delivering a service unmatched elsewhere in the market. It also means delivering tailored solutions that meet specific needs. To measure these efforts and their success, we ask our clients and broker partners to give us their feedback through an annual survey, introduced in 2007. Over 3 600 responses in 2010 revealed an improvement in average satisfaction ratings of more than 30% from 2007 for our flexibility and our tailoring of coverage, and of over 20% for our account management, ease of doing business and claims service.

 

An excellent investment

For our investors, we want to be an excellent investment. Investor confidence is fundamental to our success. In November 2010, we reached an agreement for the early repayment of the convertible perpetual capital instrument (CPCI) issued to Berkshire Hathaway, with no additional charge for bringing forward the repayment date from March 2011, thereby removing a risk of dilution to our investors. In 2011, we have taken steps to normalise our dividend, offering attractive returns to investors.

 

The place to succeed

For our employees, we want to be the place to succeed. Our corporate culture attracts and develops top talent from around the globe. Representing more than 80 nations, our employees contribute their skills,diversity and talent to a work culture shaped by mutual respect, thriving in an environment designed to make each of them a success.

 

A serious challenge

For our competitors, we want to represent a serious challenge. This means being a top competitor for every opportunity for which we have an appetite to write business. We also want to be known as the innovator and thought leader in the industry.

 

A trusted partner

For society, we want to be a trusted partner. This means being socially responsible and a leader in creating public-private partnerships that help secure prospects of societies in the event of a disaster. In 2010, for example, Swiss Re introduced an index-based insurance programme – a first in Southeast Asia – that was developed for the Vietnam Agribank Insurance Joint Stock Company to cover loans to rice farmers in Vietnam.