Swiss Re expects to remain a meaningful participant in alternative capital: Baertschi

Speaking today at Swiss Re’s briefing at RVS 2026 in Monte Carlo, Urs Baertschi, Chief Executive Officer, of P&C Reinsurance, underscored the importance of the reinsurers third-party capital markets focused Alternative Capital Partners (ACP) division, and stated that Swiss Re expects to continue to be a “meaningful participant in that market.”

During Swiss Re’s media briefing at RVS today, Baertschi stressed the overall importance of the reinsurance industry having a strong capital base.

“It’s important that the reinsurance industry has a strong capital base to support growing demand. So demand is rising from insurance companies, demand is rising from the public sector. There’s more exposures, there’s more values, there’s new risks, and as a reinsurance industry, we need to take out the volatilities so that the insurance companies can provide their product at a cost-efficient way to the end customers,” Baertschi said.

“That only happens if we are resilient in our capital base. About a little bit over 80% comes in the form of traditional reinsurance capital. The rest we think of as alternative capital as well.”

Baertschi continued: “Alternative capital is an important part of the capital stack, and the opportunities that insurance companies and buyers of this kind of protection have, and it also very importantly supports the traditional reinsurance capacity.”

In light of this, we asked senior executives what the reinsurer’s plans were for growing its Alternative Capital Partners division into 2027.

“Alternative capital is an important part of the capital alternatives that insurance companies in the public sector have. We’ve been a very strong player in this field for over 25 years, we were one of the pioneers in the ILS space,” Baertschi said.

“We continue to be offering those services to our clients as well, and we expect to continue to be a meaningful participant in that market,” he added.

Earlier this year, Swiss Re launched a new Alternative Capital Solutions unit to encompass its activities in ILS and retrocessional hedging and execution. The new unit operates under Swiss Re’s ACP division.