Jennifer Rudden
Research expert covering finance, real estate and insurance
Get in touch with us nowWhat is reinsurance?
In 2021, the operating profit of Munich Reinsurance Company amounted to 3.5 billion euros. The company assumes part of the risk covered by the insurance companies counted among its clients. Ultimately, the goal of reinsurance is to reduce exposure to loss by passing on the risk to a reinsurer or a group of reinsurers. Munich Re provides cover for life, health, transport, casualty, space, fire and engineering. This practice differs between countries, and is often measured by what is called the retention ratio, which is the share of premiums ‘retained’ by insurance companies (with the remainder being passed to reinsurers). Munich Re’s reinsurance premiums written amounted to over 41 billion euros in 2021. That same year, Munich Re employed around 40,000 people worldwide.Munich Re’s financial performance
Munich Re closed the 2021 financial year with a net income of almost three billion euros. The value of gross premiums written by Munich Re amounted to almost 60 billion euros in 2021. A subsidiary of Munich Re, ERGO, carries out the regular insurance business of the group. ERGO deals with insurance segments such as health, life, international, property-casualty, direct and travel insurances. In 2021, the total premium income of ERGO amounted to more than 18.2 billion euros.
