Swiss Re CorSo’s international programs unit expects to end 2024 “well above” $1bn GWP

Swiss Re Corporate Solutions will reach $1bn of international programs gross premium ahead of schedule this year, and is confident it can continue to grow the book, according to William Porter, the company’s head international programs, Americas.

Swiss Re Corporate Solutions entered the international programs business around 2020.

In an interview with this publication in June 2022, Porter had said Swiss Re Corporate Solutions was on track to generate $1bn in international program premiums by the end of 2025.

In a new interview with The Insurer, Porter said that the company is ahead of schedule.

“We nearly hit it last year, at the end of 2023, and we are definitely going to hit it this year,” he said. “We expect to finish 2024 well above the $1bn gross written premium mark. We are very pleased about how quickly we've been able to grow this portfolio.”

The majority of the business is from the European and North American markets, but APAC and Latin America have also contributed to the growth.

Porter commented that property lines are “the backbone of international programs” but said that Swiss Re Corporate Solutions has also seen growth in other lines such as casualty and D&O.

“That helps to diversify our portfolio both geographically and by line of business,” he said.

“It was important to us as we grew that we didn't grow just in one place or in one line of business, that we really had it spread out as much as we could. We've been able to achieve that goal, and it's given us a stronger and more balanced portfolio.”

When asked how property business differs in the international programs space, Porter said it follows the same trends as the property market in general but has "additional considerations as most carriers in this space have global risk portfolios".

These global players are perhaps more insulated from large localised market swings but are also exposed to risks on a global scale. While market changes may be more moderate, the factors driving change are more complex.

“We’ve seen in the last few years probably the hardest property insurance market that most of us have seen in our careers,” said Porter. “It’s in a transitioning phase now. I'm not sure exactly where it's going to go. It's not what it was a year ago, or certainly two years ago.”

However, Porter expects the international programs business to continue to grow.

“I think that there's still a lot of headroom for Swiss Re Corporate Solutions to increase this portfolio,” he said. “Property is going to continue to be the premium driver.

“In the transitioning market, we always want to make sure that we're making solid underwriting decisions first. So we're going to underwrite the risk the same as we always do. But there is opportunity for us to grow in what we call conversions, turning existing accounts into international programs.”

Porter explained that this could be an account in the property space that Swiss Re Corporate Solutions was already on but maybe another company was providing the international servicing to it.

“We have had success in the last few years converting those accounts, often by taking a bigger share, moving into a primary position, or having a better international programs proposition that we can present to the customer and therefore take over the issuance of their global policies.”

Large footprint required for international programs

Only a handful of carriers operate in the large-account international programs market as it requires a large transatlantic footprint, as well as the ability to handle the Latin American, Asian and African markets.

Swiss Re Corporate Solutions’ insurance partners bring its overall network to more than 150 countries, and the company leads international programs from its offices in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, the US, and the UK.

“There are only a few companies in the world that have that footprint, and that's one of the things that attracted us to join this space,” Porter said.

“At Swiss Re we were already operating around the world. So we had part of the necessary recipe already in place, all we needed to do was connect that all through the technology solutions that we created and through the desire to write this type of business to join that select group of companies in the top space of the market that can do this business.”

Swiss Re Corporate Solutions' international programs team also competes with more companies lower down in the middle markets space, where often only a handful of international countries are involved.

Porter said that the biggest challenge in the international programs business is communication.

“We all know how hard it can be to communicate just in one country between the customer, broker and the carrier that's trying to write their business,” he said.

“So you take that and you multiply it by 20, 30, 40 countries,” he said.

“You're having those same conversations – although at a different level, because most of the details are coordinated through the home country – but you still have to get a policy issued, an invoice out and money moving around those countries. To do that, all three parties have to be talking and have to stay in pretty constant connection with each other to make sure that things work.”