The CEO of Munich Re, Joachim Wenning, expects that the favorable market conditions, which have led to record profits for the reinsurance industry in recent months, will continue in the coming months, despite rising costs for businesses and households.

Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer, was among a number of companies that reported impressive earnings on Thursday. This development has been driven by a significant increase in the costs of insuring and reinsuring properties against natural disasters in recent years. This cost increase has led to an affordability crisis for insurance in many parts of the world, affecting both consumers and businesses.

Despite record profits and expectations that new entrants could enter the market to lower prices, Wenning emphasized that he does not expect any "weakening" in the reinsurance market before the important policy renewals at the end of the year. "We are very confident that the market environment... will remain unchanged, which means it will continue to be very attractive," said Wenning.

Munich Re reported a record after-tax profit of 3.8 billion euros in the first half of the year, supported by strong performance in other business segments. Beazley and Lancashire, two companies listed on the London Stock Exchange that offer property insurance and reinsurance among other types of insurance, also achieved record profits.

Here is the translated heading:
"Managers in the reinsurance industry argue that the industry still needs to catch up after years of underwriting losses, before prices picked up again in 2022. 'Reinsurers now need to earn what they couldn’t earn for so long,' says Wenning.

The reinsurers have also benefited from a quieter period with fewer large-scale disasters such as hurricanes and have adjusted their policies to reduce their risks in events such as storms and floods. These events have hit the mass-market home insurers particularly hard, especially in the USA, where many state regulators limit pricing for local providers.

Beazley reported a doubled pre-tax profit of $729 million for the first half of the year, driven by strong underwriting performance and higher returns from the investment portfolio. The combined ratio — a measure of claims and expenses in relation to premiums — improved from 88 percent to 81 percent. Beazley expects this figure to be around 80 percent for the full year, which led to an 11 percent increase in the company's shares in London.

Beazley's CEO Adrian Cox explained that the strong performance was due to a mix of careful risk selection and higher prices. He added that the property reinsurance sector might be the first to give way, as insurers had to bear significant losses from extreme weather events.

Lancashire, also published on Thursday, reported a post-tax profit of $201 million in the first half of the year, marking a 25 percent increase compared to the same period last year. Their CEO Alex Maloney stated that a slowdown in the property insurance market would occur gradually. "You don't go from a great market to a bad market within a year. That never happens so quickly," Maloney explained.