ANNUAL REPORT 2013

Stephan Ruoff
Group Chief
Underwriting Officer
Head of Europe
The redomestication of Tokio
Millennium Re to Zurich had a
significant impact on the Zurich
office through most of 2013 and
challenged available resources.
We had to continue focusing on
ensuring that all of our systems
and processes are aligned with
the Group standards. We received
regulatory approval from the
Swiss regulatory body (FINMA) in October and the Zurich office
has been operating as the organisation’s headquarters since then.
At the same time, our continental European portfolio grew significantly
and we exceeded our business objectives. We discovered and entered
new markets and continued to make further inroads into countries
where we had already started writing business.
Although 2013 was generally considered to be a benign catastrophe
year worldwide, there were significant cat events in Europe.
For instance, the most costly hail event ever recorded hit Germany.
Even with this active cat year, the continental European portfolio
met its profitability targets.
Despite European reinsurance markets being extremely competitive,
we took all challenges head on, making sure we had all the pieces in
place for ongoing growth and expansion. To that end, we’ve increased
the size of our team, specifically on the business side – underwriting,
actuarial and cat modelling. As a technical reinsurer, we must always
live up to our promise of adding value, analysis and knowledge in these
areas. We will also continue to penetrate the markets and increase our
presence in continental Europe further, finding the right programmes
and partners to strengthen our position in the year ahead.
Another sign of our enhanced presence on the world reinsurance
stage came in October at the annual reinsurance conference in
Baden-Baden, Germany. During the conference, the “Intelligent
Insurer” European Awards were announced, and Tokio Millennium Re
was named the Best Reinsurer for Innovation (Europe) with GWP
of less than $2 billion – a true testament to the hard work of the
Zurich team over the past couple of years.
Our innovation is evident in a hail research project that TMR in Zurich
initiated in 2013. This project is unique in the market and will result
in a hail model that we anticipate will be very relevant to some major
European insurance markets as of 2015.
TOKIO MILLENNIUM RE | ANNUAL REPORT 2013 7