Now, AM Best’s “World’s 50 Largest Reinsurers has four Asian reinsurers – China Re(fourth largest IFRS -17 global reinsurer, with a premium income of $5.9 billion) Korea Re((sixth largest IFRS -17 global reinsurer, with a premium of $5.77 billion) Japanese MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings( 9th largest non-IFRS 17 global player, with a premium of $5.7 billion) and GIC Re(10th largest non-IFRS global reinsurer, with a premium of $4.5 billion)
OLDWICK, N.J: Swiss Re’s adoption of IFRS 17 has resulted in some shifts atop AM Best’s rankings of the world’s largest reinsurers in 2024, which differ based on accounting standards.
The Best’s Market Segment Report, “World’s 50 Largest Reinsurers” is a highly recognized part of AM Best’s overall look at the global reinsurance industry ahead of the Rendez-Vous de Septembre in Monte Carlo.
AM Best’s “World’s 50 Largest Reinsurers” ranks companies based on their full-year 2024 performance.
Swiss Re had previously reported under GAAP standards, but with this change now moves from first among the non-IFRS 17 reporters last year to first among IFRS 17 reporters.
This bumped Munich Re from the top spot among IFRS 17 reporters to second, followed by Hannover Rück SE placing third.
Swiss Re reported $40.5 billion of gross premiums written at year-end 2023 and $36.2 billion of reinsurance revenue at year-end 2024. In terms of loss performance, Munich Re led with a non-life reinsurance combined ratio of 77.3, compared to 85.2 for the year prior.
Among the top five non-IFRS 17 players, the most significant change is Berkshire Hathaway moving into the top position, with $ 26.9 billion of gross premiums written, followed by Lloyd’s with $ 23.5 billion.
The top 5 IFRS 17 players had a solid performance in 2024, reporting a weighted average combined ratio of 84.9.
Hannover Re remains in third place in IFRS 17 categories with 2024 revenue of $27.5 billion, followed by SCOR with revenue of $16.8 billion. In the same category China Re with a premium income of of $5.9 billion has emerged as the fourth while in among non-IFRS 17 players, India’s state owned GIC Re with a premium of $4.5 billion continues as the 10th largest global insurer.
Now, AM Best’s “World’s 50 Largest Reinsurers has four Asian reinsurers – China Re, Korea Re((with a premium of $5.77 billion, sixth largest global reinsurer among the IFRS reporters), Japanese MS&AD Insurance Group Holdings( 9th in the global ranking among non-IFRS 17 players with a premium of $5.7 billion)) and GIC Re.
Last year’s edition of the World’s 50 Largest Reinsurers report introduced two separate rankings based on gross premiums written for non-IFRS 17 reporting reinsurers and reinsurance revenue for IFRS 17 reporters. This now marks the second full year of financial information being reported under IFRS-17, which has provided AM Best with additional insights into the year-over-year performance of reinsurers ranked in the report.
The report notes that global reinsurers’ results for 2025 will depend upon activity during the Atlantic hurricane season.
“The California wildfires in January heavily impacted results for the first quarter, with many reinsurers who had California exposure reporting their worst quarterly underwriting experience in recent years and the impact of the wildfires eroding substantial portions of budgeted catastrophe loads for the year,” said Chris Pennings, financial analyst, AM Best. “As 2025 plays out, the market has witnessed pockets of rate softening among non-loss affected accounts, though rates modestly improved or maintained on loss affected accounts.