SIRC: Fit for purpose? Pricing, structures to moderate, Swiss Re’s Victor Kuk says

November 5 2025 by

Clients are asking for some moderation in terms and conditions and breaks and Swiss Re are ready to look the reinsurance programs based on the performance and external factors, according to Victor Kuk, head of reinsurance in Southeast Asia, India, South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

“Overall, for property I expect the [market] will see some moderation depending on different factors. The moderation will come in the form of pricing and structures,” said Kuk.

He said that the clients would look at their structures and decide whether it is fit for purpose.

“When I say fit for purpose, it means look at volatility, capital positions, solvency, as well as profit generation,” Kuk added.

“Because things have stabilised a bit more for two years now, we will need to look at the structures that had become very tight during the hard market.”

He said that there is new reinsurance capacity coming into the Asian market, which will be a factor in terms of the eventual pricing.

“But ultimately, we look at how sustainable the primary market is. We look at how we deploy capacity and whether we’re getting sufficient margins,” Kuk added.

“In some of the markets, you can charge a bit more or you have strong conditions. But what’s important is whether they’re charging enough for the primary risk In a number of primary markets, we see increasing competition. We monitor them.”

Swiss Re strategy

For the global reinsurer, the factors that will determine the eventual outcomes include growing nat cat losses, which impact programs; sustainability, which is to do with a number of external factors including economic growth, trade tensions, etc., and how the individual clients manage underwriting.

Swiss Re is bottom-line-focused, he said: “We don’t measure the performance based on premium but based on underwriting performance.

“Because we recognise there are different cycles. In a hard cycle, we will deploy more capacity and grow more and in a competitive market, we will hold back a little bit.”

“Our role is to be a shock absorber. Going into the working layer is not the objective of reinsurance.”

Victor Kuk, Swiss Re

Swiss Re will look at offering protection in the lower layers, but that would depend on the motivations of the clients.

It will look at programs in the “totality in terms of why they want to buy the program”.

“Depending on the kind of business you talk about or volatility, capital management, solvency management, all those will be there as well, but the structure would be catered for what they need the programs for,” he added.

However, aggregate covers is not something Swiss Re will do.

“Our role is to be a shock absorber. Going into the working layer is not the objective of reinsurance,” he added.

Growth markets

“India, Southeast Asia, we expect the growth to be higher, which means then the premium should go up,” Kuk said.

In terms of lines of business, nat cats will continue to drive the need for property cat, while Kuk identified cyber and specialty lines as opportunities for growth in the region.

“Cyber is a small line of business, but in terms of growth, this will be quite significant in the next few years,” he said.

“If you look at specialty lines, engineering is likely to grow in countries where there’s still a large infrastructure budge.”

In other specialty lines, marine, which remains a function of global trade, was also highlighted.

“Marine is a function of global trade and this will depend on how trade uncertainty is eventually sorted out. But in general, the marine market has improved this year,” Kuk said.

“Casualty, we believe, will be relatively sticky. While casualty in general is growing in most of markets, it’s still a small line of business compared to property.

“Another line of business that will drive the growth is medical, but then it’s not part of the P&C world.”

Market consolidation

Kuk noted that given the regulatory changes and the “fragmentation” in many of the region’s markets would drive consolidation in the region.

And Swiss Re sees opportunities in advising clients on their transactions.

“M&A-related structured solutions is one of our core focuses,” he said.

“We see that to be attractive for us and we are well placed to manage them because we have a lot of experience in Asia when it comes to loss portfolio transfer, adverse development cover, runoff, legal finality, economic finality-type deals.”

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