SIRC 2026: Munich Re sees renewals move beyond price as risk complexity grows

November 5 2026 by

Renewal discussions are becoming less about price and more about finding solutions to the needs of the cedents, Hitesh Kotak, Munich Re’s chief executive for Japan, India, South Korea and Southeast Asia, said. 

“Most of our discussions have been around how we can support insurers in their growth and in their understanding of new, complex, interconnected risks. For example, data centres are at the heart of it,” he said. 

“This is a refreshing topic, because last year the discussion was mainly about price.” 

However, he acknowledged that the market is not very different from last year and there will be some pricing pressure. 

 “There is abundant capacity. You can see it, you can feel it,” he added.  

The availability of capital and the greater willingness of reinsurers to deploy it have increased the competitive intensity, creating a more buyer-friendly market. 

“We take this market situation in our stride,” Kotak said. 

From Munich Re’s perspective, there are no overarching trends that are shaping the renewals conversations. 

“You are only subject to market trends if you write the whole market,” he said. “If you are being very selective in your partnerships, then you are also relying a lot on your underwriting.” 

On program structures, Kotak said he expects continuity rather than radical change. Clients are comfortable with existing arrangements and wary of making short-term structural changes in a soft cycle. 

“Everybody is interested in long-term sustainable program structures,” he said. “We don’t see any knee-jerk changes.” 

However, he noted that primary market softening is a concern because pressure on insurers eventually flows back to reinsurers.  

“We all have seen enough cycles to know that this is not a trend and this is more a phase in the cycle,” he said. “Things will change and I think when things change you should be in a better position to address the gaps in the market.” 

Complex risks

Data centres, cyber, energy transition, and the interconnection and the complexity of all the risks definitely have been a big theme in the last few days of our conversations, according to Kotak. 

For data centres, Kotak said, “Data centre is still a complex topic. We insure them on the facultative side. But I think as an industry we don’t have off the shelf solutions yet.” 

Much of the current data centre business remains facultative and single-risk oriented, partly because many facilities are still under construction.  

Cyber is another area where the challenge is less about the product than distribution.  

“Cyber continues to be a challenging product to sell, many discussions are not so much around cyber as a product, but around supporting cyber distribution.” Hitesh Kotak, Munich Re

Kotak said that reinsurers are also being asked to support insurers’ broader strategic goals of growth financing, earnings smoothing and volatility reduction. 

“Reinsurance is now beyond volatility reduction and increasingly also used to find solutions for the strategic development of the clients,” he said.  

“Some clients are looking at growth financing solutions as growth is coming back in some markets. It could be about smoothening the earnings or optimising the capital allocation.” 

Plugging the gap

Munich Re had expected lower rates to encourage insurers to buy more capacity, review underinsurance and widen coverage, but that has not fully materialised. 

“We anticipated that with rates being on the lower side, the clients would buy more capacity, would do more analysis of their coverage inadequacies and try to fill the gap,” Kotak said. “We didn’t see that much. I think generally the emphasis was more on savings.” 

He hopes the next cycle brings a stronger focus on closing those gaps, particularly as Asia’s exposure to natural catastrophes, digital infrastructure and energy-transition assets continues to expand. 

Munich Re has nevertheless found growth in selected areas, especially single-risk business in construction, data centres, renewables and cyber.  

Kotak said the company is willing to wait where returns do not justify deployment. 

“We believe in committing our capacity on a long-term basis,” he added. “And if it’s an objective which cannot be met, then we are also happy to sit back and then wait for our turn to come.” 

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