Swiss Re has unveiled a “four-pillar” strategic framework to make the company more agile.

“At the heart of the framework is the systematic and fast allocation of capital to access new and existing risk pools and revenue streams,” Group CEO Michel Liès told an investors’ forum in Zurich last week.

He told investors the insurance environment is challenged by low interest rates, industry consolidation and volatility in high-growth markets.

However, low insurance penetration in many parts of the world “creates ample opportunities” that are best seized by agile operators.

The new strategic framework is designed to “seize new and emerging opportunities and tackle existing challenges”, while building on the success of Swiss Re’s current strategy.

“Since 2011 we consistently outperformed our peers, grew our business and we continue to focus, with only a few weeks to go, on delivering our 2011-15 financial targets,” Mr Liès said.

“However, past success is no guarantee for the future, and therefore we actively looked into what will shape our industry.

“We developed our strategic framework with the trends, opportunities and challenges we identified in mind.

“As a result, we’ll be able to increase our agility and respond more quickly and effectively to change and to drive change ourselves. At the heart of our transformation journey is our aim to be an agile capital allocator in insurance and associated asset risks.”

The strategy’s four “core pillars” are to systematically allocate capital to risk pools and revenue streams; broaden and diversify the client base to increase access to risk; optimise resources and platforms to support capital allocation; and emphasise differentiation.

Mr Liès says the strategy represents “not a revolution, but an evolution”.

“The fundamentals that have driven Swiss Re’s sustainable value creation in the past will remain valid. We’ve looked extensively at our opportunities and challenges and we believe our strategic framework equips us very well to address changes with greater agility and selectively capture opportunities for profitable growth.”