NewRe’s CEO optimistic on future growth, calls for reinsurance agreement transparency

Despite experiencing a difficult year in 2023, NewRe’s CEO Thomas Braune expects that the firm’s growth from the past will continue. In addition to expressing confidence in the company’s future, he emphasised the need for greater clarity and transparency in reinsurance agreements.

Braune’s comments stem from an interview with Reinsurance News during the 66th Rendez-Vous de Septembre (RVS) in Monte Carlo, in which he discussed a range of topics, including his expectations for the upcoming January renewals and the future of NewRe.

“For me, the key discussion now is, after the needed strong increase of retentions in the past, what the intention of our cedents going forward is,” Braune said on the January renewals.

“Do they need new solutions? Do they want to further increase? Do they want to restructure their programs? The sooner and clearer we get here, the better it is. Fundamentally, I do not expect any larger changes of the structure this year,” he added.

Braune also underlined the issues concerning the legal wording of reinsurance agreements. According to him, there needs to be “as much clarity as possible”, yet there are still unclear definitions for certain lines of business in the market that need some amendment.

Braune continued, “I will give you two examples. One example is loss occurrence definitions for nat cat events. Here we are in favour of very clear definitions.

“In property, we want to cover the real property damages only. Here, clauses are not that clear either. We are strong advocates for clarity.

“As for pricing, of course, we expect that we can regain some price increases from programs which were loss-affected and where we paid a lot in the past.

“We also see some markets which are still underpriced, like Italy. In other markets, I expect competition, with some less, but overall, I expect a stable price environment.”

Discussing NewRe’s outlook for the future, Braune observed that the firm had a difficult year last year as it suffered a technical loss, mainly from the earthquake in Turkey and hail storms.

“We thought hard about our strategy, and we confirmed that it’s the right strategy. We write P&C business as well as life business, and I expect that our growth from the past will continue, but very selectively. The bottom line remains our priority, meaning we don’t focus on the top line,” Braune concluded.

Before joining NewRe, Braune was in charge of Munich Re’s (NewRe’s parent) life and health reinsurance business in Europe, Latin America and some markets in the Middle East.

Prior to taking over the division, Braune reported directly to Munich Re’s CEO, being responsible for corporate strategy and organisation, corporate responsibility, Group-wide human resources management and the Group’s Economic Research department.

For an interim period, he was also responsible for Munich Health, the worldwide health insurance and reinsurance business of Munich Re Group.

Before becoming Head of Group Development, he was Chief Financial Officer at Munich Re Italy, Milan, prior to which he was in charge of strategic investments at Munich Re, where his role included managing worldwide M&A activities in the insurance industry.

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