Thorsten Steinmann, CEO of E+S Rück and Member of the Executive Board for Hannover Re, said he sees structured solutions as a growth area, with demand increasing for frequency protection and aggregate covers, but stressed that the firm’s appetite for this business depends on adequate margins and well-structured programmes.
This afternoon, E+S Rück, the Hannover Re subsidiary responsible for its German property and casualty reinsurance business, held a 2026 Baden-Baden press briefing, exploring current developments in Germany and Continental Europe, alongside the outlook for the upcoming 1 January 2027 renewals.
During the briefing, Steinmann said structured reinsurance is a core segment for E+S Rück, which he considers to have a “market-leading position in structured solutions”.
He explained, “We have a large block of structured solutions. The main purpose is capital solvency or earnings volatility protection. In the last few years, since our clients were doing okay financially, it was mainly an earnings protection type of play, and obviously we have offered one of the few reinsurer solutions which are in the frequency space.
“Since 2023, the attachment points on nat cat programmes went up, and one or another client was super happy with that and went through the last three years very easily with these high attachment points, and is now happy to keep that stable. While some others started to buy lower down or frequency protections, sometimes in the form of an aggregate, sometimes in the form of a non-traditional frequency protection.”
Steinmann noted that this is a growing line of business and expects some clients who have not yet bought frequency protection to start looking into it. He stressed that, if structured properly and priced adequately, there is an opportunity for E+S Rück.
“We do expect that some clients will seek some sort of frequency protection or aggregate covers, and I can say we have always been a market participant who has had appetite for well-structured frequency protections and aggregate covers, and we continue to do so as long as the margins are okay and the programmes are well structured,” he said.
Steinmann also outlined E+S Rück’s outlook for the January renewals across Europe.
“We see, on the one hand, a picture of increasing complexity, but at the same time also continued opportunity,” he explained. “The good thing is the underlying demand for reinsurance remains strong, while we expect the market to remain competitive and capacity to be readily available.
“Natural catastrophe remains a growth area for us. This has some historic reasons. We are a little bit underrepresented in the nat cat space and we have corrected this over the last three to four years, but we are not there yet.
“Climate change, inflation, and increasing concentration of values continue to drive demand for protection. And at the same time, we do expect that some clients will seek some sort of frequency protection or aggregate covers.”
