Governance and risk management

Board of Directors and Executive Management

Governance and risk management

Swiss Re’s 2017 Financial Report describes the governance and risk management framework for the Group and its legal entities, including the Company. The following comments provide additional details at the legal entity level.

All risk-related activities of the Company are subject to Swiss Re’s risk management framework. The Company is subject to the corporate governance and risk governance requirements of a Level I entity. These requirements include clear separation of management and Board supervision, mandatory representation of external directors and governance documentation to establish the roles and responsibilities of the Company’s governing bodies. The Company fully adopts Swiss Re’s risk management principles, including roles for delegated risk-taking and oversight, as well as risk culture and behaviour.

The Company has set out its risk governance, responsibilities, risk appetite and risk limits in its Risk Management Standards. These standards are reviewed annually or in the event of a significant change in the business structure or governance arrangements of the Company.

The Company fully adopts Swiss Re’s risk control framework, which has been reviewed and endorsed for use by the Board for use at legal entity level. To meet some of the requirements within the framework, the Company relies on the outsourcing of tasks to other Group Risk Management functions.

The Company makes use of Swiss Re’s internal risk model and follows the Group Risk Management Standards, Group Risk Category Standards and model-related standards in their approach to integrated risk measurement, including model development and governance.

The Company has delegated responsibility for the production of integrated risk measurement calculations to Group Risk Management functions, including calculations required for SST reporting as well as for business planning and calculating compliance with legal entity risk appetite and limits. At the same time, the CRO of the Company retains the responsibility for reviewing, challenging and signing off integrated risk calculations before they are reported to the Company’s Executive Committee and Board as well as to FINMA.

Regular risk reporting is produced by the Company based on the outcomes of other risk control processes. Regular risk reports are produced for the Company’s Executive Committee and the Board, which cover all material risk exposures. These include risks contained within the regulatory capital requirements as well as risks that use different metrics (eg liquidity) and are assessed qualitatively or managed through the internal control system (eg operational).