View from the top: Monica Ningen, Swiss Re

Fresh out of college, Monica Ningen joined the reinsurance sector, at E.W. Blanch. Specializing in catastrophe analysis, she moved in 2000 to Employers Re Corp., where she learned parent company General Electric Co.’s Six Sigma process improvement program. After Swiss Re bought ERC in 2006, she held several leadership positions, including heading Swiss Re’s business in Canada. In 2023 she was named CEO of US P&C reinsurance, which writes about a quarter of the reinsurer’s business. Ms. Ningen spoke with Business Insurance Editor Gavin Souter about the state of the reinsurance market, rising court awards and the changing political environment. Edited excerpts follow.

Q: How would you characterize the current state of the reinsurance market?

A: When you start the year with a wildfire, insurance and reinsurance get a lot of attention. So, the first quarter of 2025 was marked by elevated natural catastrophes and man-made losses. Leading up to the mid-year renewals, I would characterize the reinsurance market as having increased capacity, with moderating price increases offset by rising exposures and elevated uncertainties globally.

On the one hand, the reinsurance industry is in a very strong financial position; on the other hand, we see a lot of elevated uncertainties about future claims trends. That includes things like natural catastrophes, especially with secondary perils. Social inflation, cyber risks and trade conflicts are all things we continue to monitor and look at.

In terms of asset management, in principle we came into the year with a lot of positive investment environment due to the strong economy. However, the trade war and the uncertainty around fiscal policy have really raised a lot of volatility in equity and bond markets.

People are pausing longer than normal before they make some choices, but overall, the industry is strong.

Q: Do you see rate reductions accelerating?

A: You see price increases slowing down and moving to decreases, but I would describe the market as really rational. There’s ample capacity, but it’s not irrational capacity.

Q: Have the Los Angeles wildfires had any impact on rating levels or capacity deployed?

A: Events like the L.A. wildfires are a great reminder of what could happen. Most companies across the industry were already closely monitoring exposure to all perils, including wildfire, and specifically working to navigate the challenging landscape of California insurance. The one thing I would draw attention to is that we really can’t forget that California is also earthquake-exposed. Companies continue to focus on getting the appropriate rate for the exposure, and if they can’t, they carefully navigate the changes with their insureds and the respective exposure management that comes with that. Specific to California, some primary companies have reduced their exposures, while others have seen this as an opportunity to grow and to diversify their portfolios. But I see this as all a part of normal business strategy evolution.

Q: You mentioned the difficulties in the liability sector with social inflation. Are you taking steps to address those rising exposures?

A: All signs suggest that the evolving risk landscape — the uncertainties, the social inflation pressures — will remain adverse for some time going forward. What is surprising to many people is the scale of the issue when it comes to social inflation. In 2023 there were 27 lawsuits against defendant companies that were awarded more than $100 million each. That was a third more than in 2022. And to put that in context, losses from U.S. commercial liability insurance were $143 billion in 2023, which was far greater than the global insured natural catastrophe losses that year.

I see the U.S. social inflation topic as an ongoing, invisible catastrophe that nobody really understands is in their backyard.

One of the biggest contributors to this environment is the expansion of third-party litigation funding. The U.S. litigation funding market grew by almost 40% from 2019 to 2023. There’s not a great deal of transparency around the practice of third-party litigation funding, and a lot of jurors are usually not aware that the defendants won’t be receiving most of those funds, and that a big chunk of that goes for the for-profit machine that has been bankrolling the cases. So, we think transparency is key.

A lot of work is being done with states and on the federal level, so the recent reforms for phantom damages, jury anchoring and double recovery of attorneys fees in Georgia are a step in the right direction. Georgia has also passed transparency into the practice of third-party litigation funding. We see some traction showing up on the federal level, but a lot of the reform will need to happen at the state level. We see that similar efforts were undertaken in Florida, and there are already signs of positive improvements there.

With that being said, our industry has a long track record of dealing with challenges like this. It’s not only risk-sharing through rate increases and commission changes, but also the ability to navigate emerging risks through data transparency.

Q: With the changes in the market, are cedents changing their buying strategies? 

A: Exposure growth continues to drive demand for increased reinsurance purchasing. Broadly speaking, reinsurance supply has met increased demand.

With aggregate treaties specifically designed to address earnings protections, they’re being evaluated in the market. The appetite for these structures is very dependent on the way the deal is structured and the respective price.

The use of proportional treaties to enable growth is a really important topic. We see increasing exposure putting pressure on leverage ratios, and so the strategic use of quota share treaties, or proportional treaties, is an area that’s getting a lot of focus.

Large losses continue to challenge the industry, but that’s something where we’ve shown our resolve.

Q: We’re in a changing geopolitical and macroeconomic environment. Are you adjusting your strategy?

A: The main point that is so important when it comes to this changing geopolitical and macroeconomic environment is agility. It’s really balancing client needs along with solid underwriting discipline in the backdrop of this changing world around us. We’re spending more time than ever with our clients and brokers, really understanding their challenges, their opportunities, and how we can best support them.

From a Swiss Re standpoint, it’s frequent scanning and nimble responses. This isn’t one large action, but a series of evolutions.