Swiss Re

The Swiss Re Group is a leading wholesale provider of reinsurance, insurance and other insurance-based forms of risk transfer. Dealing direct and working through brokers, its global client base consists of insurance companies, mid-to-large-sized corporations and public sector clients. From standard products to tailor-made coverage across all lines of business, Swiss Re deploys its capital strength, expertise and innovation power to enable the risk-taking upon which enterprise and progress in society depend.

Founded in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1863, Swiss Re serves clients through a network of around 70 offices globally and is rated “AA-” by Standard & Poor’s, “Aa3” by Moody’s and “A+” by A.M. Best. Registered shares in the Swiss Re Group holding company, Swiss Re Ltd, are listed in accordance with the International Reporting Standard on the SIX Swiss Exchange and trade under the symbol SREN.

In August 2018, Swiss Re announced it had partnered with FlightStats and insurer Chubb to bring parametric flight delay insurance to consumers.

In 2019, the Group's commercial insurance arm, Swiss Re's Corporate Solutions, teamed up with French cyber security insurtech, OZON, to launch an innovative risk management product that combines insurance with cyber attack protection services.

That year, the reinsurer announced the promotional launch of its Financial Health program, developed in collaboration with Sharecare, to encourage people to take control of their physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing.

Also in 2019, Swiss Re collaborated with Pioneer to launch a telematics solution for auto insurers, which has been made available in Swiss Re's telematics suite. The new services include real-time drive warnings, crash detection and other claims-related services.

In November 2019 CPIC and Swiss Re revealed the two companies were exploring an agreement that would see each company make an investment in the other. CPIC was in talks to invest around $2bn for a stake in Swiss Re, and the latter would invest in a $500m-$1bn minority stake in CPIC.

In February 2020 the Swedish flatpack furniture giant IKEA launched a simple home insurance product in partnership with Swiss Re's white-label Insurance-as-a-Service platform iptiQ. Available online from the IKEA website, the new HEMSÄKER product will be sold in Singapore and Switzerland at first, with a focus on giving financial resilience to the underinsured.

Swiss Re partnered with Microsoft in March 2020 to launch the Digital Market Center. The centre aims to develop new risk management services and insurance products based on Azure cloud technologies, IoT and AI, and will also create cyber platforms to analyse business risks.

The following month, Swiss Re announced it would open access to its proprietary Life underwriting manual for 90 days to help all life and health insurers review the way they assess risk.

In June 2020 Swiss Re announced the closure of its Life Capital Business Unit. The unit, a combination of iptiQ, elipsLife and ReAssure, will be broken up towards the end of 2020 when ReAssure is acquired by Phoenix Group. ElipsLife will move to Corporate Solutions, whilst iptiQ will be a standalone division as of 01/01/21.

Swiss Re partnered with Banking giant UBS in July 2020. UBS is to launch life insurance for property owners in Switzerland with the insurer.

The following month, in August, Swiss Re partnered with OneConnect to co-develop a digital end-to-end solution for auto claims handling for the European market. The solution with leverage OneConnect's AI-based image recognition technology and Swiss Re's expertise.

In August 2020 Alphabet's Verily partnered with Swiss Re to launch a new health insurance venture - the Coefficient Insurance Company. The new Verily subsidiary will help self-funded employers by providing stop-loss insurance, and will leverage Verily's tech and data science, and Swiss Re Corporate's distribution model.

That same month, Swiss Re invested a reported $100m into Chinese Insurtech Waterdrop, as part of its $230m Series C round. Whilst not confirming figures, Swiss Re said the move was part of a long-term commitment to the Chinese market.

In October Swiss Re and Daimler Insurance Services partnered to launch an auto insurtech Movinx, which will offer flexible and fully digital products. Movinx will act as a MGA, and the joint venture will be open for cooperations with other stakeholders such as car manufacturers or, more generally, mobility service providers.

In March 2021 Swiss Re Corporate Solutions has invested into Verily's precision risk health insurance company Granular Insurance (previously known as Coefficient). Granular provides smart employer benefit risk sharing through data-driven insights and predictive analytics, and already supports over 100k consumers - a number the companies expect to grow 'significantly' over the next few months.

In August 2021 Connected Insurance partnered with Swiss Re and Bituach Haklai to launch The Digital-Life Insurance, an embedded cyber protection product for individuals and families, to help against the risk of cyber attacks on personal electronic devices.

In September 2021 Swiss Re entered a partnership with Blabla Car and L’olivier Assurance to launch a digital motor app in France. BlaBlaCar Coach will offer drivers personalised coaching and tips for safer driving, available with annual insurance. The app analyses the driver’s conduct at the wheel, including phone usage and other distractions, without any additional equipment having to be installed, and can lead to savings on insurance.

Also in September, Swiss Re announced a partnership with Claim Genius, which provides AI-powered claims solutions, in order to enhance its motor claims efficiencies with real-time damage assessment and estimation. Swiss Re stated the team-up would help the company to deliver enhanced "claims management capabilities to its cedent clients, helping them lower settlement time and costs, while making the post-accident process fast, fair and frictionless for consumers".

In November 2021 Swiss Re partnered with Baidu to advance insurance and risk management for autonomous driving and autonomous vehicles.

In April 2022 it was revealed Swiss Re would join the latest Lloyd's Lab cohort as a late addition to develop a prototype for ESG data, aiming to address the confusion around ESG data - especially the problems with private company data and how insurers can visualise it.

In August 2022 Swiss Re partnered with India's innovation hub and ecosystem enabler T-Hub to drive innovation in the Insurtech space. The collaboration will involve Swiss Re's own innovation hub Swiss Re Global Business Solutions India, which will be able to leverage T-Hub's ecosystem of startups to enhance processes and products, adopt open innovation strategies, and also access up to eight insurtechs, who they will provide mentorship too.

In October 2022 Swiss Re partnered with Indonesia Re to provide members with access to its analytics solutions and risk consulting services.

In November 2022 Jooycar partnered with Swiss Re. Fleetr by Jooycar will be brought to the Mexican market, following a successful launch in the US, which saw over 6k cars connected in the first 12-months. Swiss Re will work with the insurtech to 'enable the use of telematics data in the insurance market to understand risks and provide more added value to the end customer.” Later in November it committed $500,000 in startup grants for African-based insurers.

In February 2023, Swiss Re announced it was splitting its Reinsurance arm into P&C Re and L&H Re, as a way to streamline its organisational structure.

In March 2023 Swiss Re partnered with automotive technology company Luminar to advance assisted driving and improve safety. The first step in the joint venture will be analysing the on-road performance and safety improvements of consumer and commercial vehicles equipped with Luminar's lidar technology. The data will be made available to Swiss Re’s clients that include major insurance providers.

In April Swiss Re partnered with claims tech company Benekiva to develop an integrated claims management platform. The new claims management platform will support digital claims intake, holistic workflow, correspondence, and document management, claims risk scoring and triaging, and have built-in payout and audit capabilities. Benekiva claims that insurers can reduce their claims cycle and processing times by up to 75%.

Later in May 2023 Swiss Re, along with Federal Life Insurance Company, partnered with Reframe Financial to offer ‘Reframe LifeStage’, a new insurance product aimed at millennial and Gen X employees. Reframe LifeStage provides families with a first-of-its-kind hybrid policy that features Indexed Universal Life insurance. The intention was for the policy to grow in value over time as customer needs change. Small businesses were expected to benefit heavily because the product has no minimum group size requirements.

Also in May, Swiss Re joined fellow reinsurance giants Munich Re and Hannover Re in cutting ties with the United Nations-convened Net-Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA). However, the insurer did not cite any reasons behind the move, and neither did leading German insurer Hannover Re when it left in April the same year. Swiss Re did state that its commitment to its sustainability strategy remained unchanged. The Group Sustainability Strategy was slated to run from 2023 to 2025.