Peak Re remains on track to deliver on its plan for global business expansion. Within that strategy of building a balanced and well diversified portfolio, Europe assumes a prominent position. Today Peak Re writes about 17% of its premiums in this region, a region which generates about 30% of global premiums.
In Europe, Peak Re’s ambition has been underpinned by setting up a fully capitalised subsidiary in Zurich, Switzerland. Although the licence from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) came too late to benefit the firm in the 2016 year-end renewals, its compliance with the Swiss Solvency Test (SST) provides Peak Re with full Solvency II equivalency and demonstrates the long-term view that the company takes with regard to building its franchise.
Going forward Peak Re will build on its portfolio in Europe and focus on expanding its client relationships. Cedants value Peak Re for the capital diversification that it brings to their panels, its global perspective and the client-centric whole-account approach it takes, which is in stark contrast to the layer-by-layer view that many of its competitors entertain.
In growing its portfolio, Peak Re will maintain a balanced approach between its Asian home-base, which will continue to represent about two thirds of the company’s book of business, and the Americas and Europe which account for the remainder. Within Europe, Peak Re focuses on the major Continental European markets such as Germany, Switzerland, France, Iberia, Italy, Austria, Benelux and the Nordics plus the UK. The lines of business offered include property and casualty lines as well as credit & surety, providing Peak Re with the full benefit of a broad diversification by product and geography.
Peak Re’s European clients can avail all resources of the company. On the one hand, they benefit from the proximity afforded by a Swiss subsidiary with its Solvency II equivalence. On the other hand, they are serviced on the company’s single underwriting platform and are directly aligned with the firm’s Hong Kong headquarters. Peak Re operates as one team, with the staff in the Zurich office part of the company’s three- cornered underwriting approach which is predicated on portfolio and risk analytics, market knowledge and of course product underwriting.
Peak Re is convinced that
its underwriting process
is more rigorous, thorough and efficient than
the typical reinsurer set-up. The firm’s underwriting approach assures that Peak Re
maintains a low expense ratio in an industry environment characterised by tight margins. At the same
time, Peak Re can
guarantee a quick
turn-around when reviewing a cedant’s portfolio because the three underwriting functions work simultaneously.
