Independent Assurance Report
On the Economic Value Management financial information as of 31 December 2018 to the Board of Directors of Swiss Re Ltd, Zurich
We have been engaged to perform a reasonable assurance engagement on the Economic Value Management (‘EVM’) financial information of Swiss Re Ltd (the ‘Company’) for the year ended 31 December 2018 (the ‘EVM financial information’). The EVM financial information consists of the income statement, balance sheet, statement of economic net worth and information on business segments as set out under EVM financial information in the Company’s 2018 Annual Report.
All other EVM information included in, or made available outside, the Company’s 2018 Annual Report was not subject to assurance procedures and, accordingly, we express no conclusion on this information.
The reporting criteria used by the Company are described in the significant EVM principles (hereafter referred to as “EVM principles”) as published on the Company’s website (swissre.com/EVM_principles).
Board of Directors’ responsibility
The Board of Directors is responsible for the preparation of the EVM financial information in accordance with the Company’s EVM principles, including data, valuation and accounting principles, assumptions and factors used and the related internal controls as determined necessary to enable the preparation of the EVM financial information that are free from material misstatement.
Practitioner’s responsibility
Our responsibility is to perform a reasonable assurance engagement to express a conclusion on the EVM financial information as set out set out under EVM financial information in the the Company’s 2018 Annual Report. We conducted our reasonable assurance engagement in accordance with International Standards on Assurance Engagements 3000 (Revised) ‘Assurance engagements other than audits or reviews of historical financial information’ issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. This standard requires that we plan and perform this engagement to obtain reasonable assurance about the assurance conclusions.
A reasonable assurance engagement involves performing procedures to obtain evidence about the execution of the valuation and accounting for the purpose of the EVM financial information in accordance with the Company’s EVM principles. The procedures selected depend on our judgment, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the EVM financial information, whether due to omissions, misrepresentation, fraud or error. In making those risk assessments, we consider internal controls relevant to the preparation of the EVM financial information in order to design assurance procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing a conclusion on the effectiveness of the entity’s internal controls regarding the EVM financial information. A reasonable assurance engagement also includes evaluating the appropriateness of the policies used and reasonableness of significant estimates made, as well as evaluating the adequacy of the overall presentation of the EVM financial information in accordance with the Company’s EVM principles.
We believe that the evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our assurance conclusion.
Our Independence and Quality Control
We have complied with the independence and other ethical requirements of the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants issued by the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants, which is founded on the fundamental principles of integrity, objectivity, professional competence and due care, confidentiality and professional behavior.
Our firm applies International Standard on Quality Control 1 and accordingly maintains a comprehensive system of quality control including documented policies and procedures regarding compliance with ethical requirements, professional standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
Conclusion
In our opinion, the EVM financial information of the Company for the year ended 31 December 2018 as set out set out under EVM financial information are prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the Company’s EVM principles applied as published on the Company’s website (swissre.com/EVM_principles).
PricewaterhouseCoopers Ltd
Roy Clark
Frank Trauschke
Zurich, 13 March 2019
Enclosure:
EVM financial information (income statement, balance sheet, statement of economic net worth and information on business segments)