Extending our risk intelligence

Risk management is at the core of Swiss Re’s business model. Controlled risk taking requires a strong risk culture across the organisation, strengthened by comprehensive risk management processes to identify, assess and control the Group’s and the Business Units’ risk exposures. The core categories of our risk landscape comprise insurance, financial market and credit risks (see 2014 Financial Report – Risk assessment).

Sound risk management is essential for a re/insurer: Tight control of our exposures guarantees that we can be a reliable partner to our clients when they need us. There is an additional dimension to risk management, though: As a responsible company, we need to pay attention to further, non-standard risks we may be exposed to, especially in the longer term.

Sustainability, political, regulatory and emerging risks are particularly relevant in this respect. We have developed instruments and know-how that help us to identify and assess all of them. This allows us to determine those risks we think should be avoided – because of their loss potential, for ethical reasons, or both.

This extended risk awareness is also key to managing our assets responsibly. The risk assessments we make through our Sustainability Risk Framework, in particular, flow directly into our investment decisions.