Swiss Re’s natural catastrophe gross premium volumes were flat in renewals for the year to date, while there was a 24% increase in its property premiums.
On the property side, which excludes natural catastrophe business, gross premium volume grew to $3.4bn from the $2.7bn that was up for renewal.
Swiss Re noted premium growth across all regions, including multi-year transactions, especially at the January renewals.
The reinsurer had $2.8bn of natural catastrophe business up for renewal in the year so far, renewing that exact amount.
An increase in exposure was offset by rate changes on certain programmes, with discipline maintained on terms and structures, the firm said in its Q1 update.
This came as Swiss Re reported a net income of $1.3bn for the first three months of the year, a 16.3% increase on the prior year quarter.
The P&C re unit booked a net income of just over $527mn for Q1, a 4.5% decrease year over year.
P&C reinsurance: The unit reported a combined ratio of 86%, a 1.3-percentage point deterioration from Q1 2024 and behind the 85% P&C re combined ratio target for 2025.
Large natural catastrophe claims amounted to $570mn in Q1, the bulk of which related to January’s Los Angeles wildfires.
With those losses, Swiss Re has eroded 29% of its full-year large natural catastrophe claims budget.
Large manmade losses totalled $140mn in Q1.
CorSo: The Corporate Solutions segment reported a 6.7% year-on-year increase in net income to $208mn, while the combined ratio improved 1.5 points to 88.4%.
Insurance revenue for the unit was $1.8bn, down 4.2% on the prior-year quarter.
P&C renewals: Swiss Re renewed contracts of $2.2bn in treaty premium volume at the 1 April renewals, representing a 2.8% increase compared with the volume of business that was up for renewal.
Group CEO Andreas Berger said: "With a turbulent start to the year, we remain vigilant and focused on maintaining our strong foundations.
“Thanks to the decisive actions we took in 2024, all our businesses are well-positioned and have delivered a robust performance in the first quarter.
“Alongside our continued focus on cost discipline and efficiency, this gives us confidence in our 2025 targets despite a challenging environment."