Swiss Re has created an institute to drive its research and development activities and strengthen a competitive advantage.

“Building up knowledge and centres of competence through R&D has been in our focus for a long time and we have created an enormous amount of value,” CEO Christian Mumenthaler said.

“With the Swiss Re Institute, we expect to accelerate this, and we believe it is virtually impossible to replicate this knowledge base within a reasonable timeframe.”

Mr Mumenthaler told an investor day last week that significant challenges continue in some markets and the company will allocate capital where opportunities are most attractive.

“In practice, this means we will continue to focus on our disciplined underwriting approach and further cut our capacity in some property and casualty businesses,” he said.

“On the other hand, we will invest more in life and health businesses.”

Challenges include pricing pressures, low interest rates, political instability and regulatory fragmentation.

But Swiss Re says, over the longer term, risk pools will continue to expand based on rising GDP and demographic trends, plus increasing insurance penetration in some high-growth markets.

CFO David Cole says the group has generated a return on equity of more than 11% over the past 10 years and economic net worth per share growth of more than 14%.

“This gives us confidence we can continue delivering strong performance over the cycle,” he said.