SCOR expects market conditions to remain stable but competitive as mid-year reinsurance renewals approach, company CEO Thierry Léger said. He also emphasized that underwriting discipline remains critical to maintaining portfolio quality.
Despite a more challenging pricing environment, SCOR continues to prioritize margin protection. During the April renewal period, which represents approximately 12% of the company’s P&C portfolio, the company chose not to renew underperforming treaties and became more selective in expanding priority lines.
“We continue to focus on our preferred business areas, consistent with our strategy to achieve profitable and diversified growth,” Léger said.
“Renewals in April represented approximately 12% of our insurance portfolio. We are prioritizing margin protection and implementing targeted portfolio management actions, including not renewing or resizing underperforming business.”
Adding: “This resulted in lower premium income but allowed us to maintain the quality of our portfolio and position our book for long-term performance. As a result, technical results deteriorated by less than one percentage point and were better than previous renewals. Going forward, we are prepared for increasing competitive pressure. We will continue to maintain underwriting discipline and focus on our preferred diversified business lines.”
Léger expects market conditions to persist through mid-year renewals, noting that SCOR will maintain a conservative growth strategy that prioritizes underwriting discipline.
“We expect market conditions to remain about the same. So we don’t expect things to worsen significantly again. So we do think we’re in a very competitive market now that requires underwriting discipline. Our team can’t do that anymore; just underwrite any business, any line, that’s it. We have to make a choice,” he said.
“As we demonstrated in April, we actually decided not to renew some of our treaties, and we’ve been able to deliver growth in some of our preferred product lines. While I expect that to continue into renewals in May, June, July, we will apply underwriting discipline in a similarly competitive environment.”
SCOR’s disciplined approach was reflected in its financial results for the first quarter of 2026, with all business lines contributing a net profit of €225 million.
Property and casualty insurance revenue reached 1.812 billion euros, an increase of 5.4% at constant exchange rates compared with the same period in 2025.
The reinsurer said the growth was primarily driven by its reinsurance division and supported by “strong” renewals. Year-to-date premium income increased 2.4% as margin deterioration was limited.
Additionally, the overall total price change for the most recent April renewal cycle was -3.5%; -7.8% for non-proportional business, driven by Property Cat; -1.4% for proportional business, driven by maritime and real estate. Extensively held terms and conditions including attachment points.
