TransRe’s Rose: Underwriting integrity should anchor reinsurance innovation

Louise Rose, President of international at TransRe, shares her view on global market dynamics, AI, MGAs, and the state of casualty reinsurance—with a call to uphold underwriting discipline in an evolving risk landscape.

With oversight of TransRe’s business outside the Americas, Louise Rose has one of the broadest roles in the international reinsurance market. Her global perspective comes with an emphasis on decentralisation.

“We’re big believers in local representation, local people with local knowledge, understanding the culture, local language, and really writing the business as close to source as we can,” she said, speaking on the latest episode of the award-winning Voice of Insurance podcast.

Reinsurer TransRe operates 10 offices across Europe and Asia Pacific, with hubs in London and New York, and Rose noted that the company’s strategy is tailored to each region. That means not forcing a rigid product mix into every market.

“You do have to have different strategies,” she explained. “We export all of the knowledge that we’ve built up in the organisation across all the different regions… and make sure we get that know-how, that expertise, to our clients, wherever they are.

“It’s not a hard and fast strategy to have that split anywhere else, but it’s really to challenge ourselves around product, to make sure that we recognise local nuance,” she added.

Market transition

Rose described the global reinsurance market as “transitioning”, with rates softening at renewals after a sustained period of hardening. However, she also warned of the danger in missing turning points, particularly in casualty, if or when softening goes too far.

“Our industry has historically been terrible at spotting the tipping point,” she said. “The danger right now is not the pricing in 2025—and probably not even 2026—but complacency.”

In US casualty insurance, a recurring topic of reinsurer concern, she warned that professional liability has seen rates fall “rapidly” since 2023. General liability has seen further deterioration—even in supposedly improved years like 2021 and 2022.

“We’re maintaining a portfolio with those that we believe are navigating through, keeping the limits compressed, keeping the rate,” she said. “The million-dollar question is, is it enough?”

Rose was similarly cautious on property catastrophe reinsurance. Though reinsurers have enjoyed strong returns in recent years, she said downward pressure is mounting, especially on attachment points, which have remained relatively consistent even as pricing has slipped.

“We know clients would like more protection for that earnings volatility piece. We get that, but it’s not sustainable,” she said. “You can’t offer products that aren’t supported by good analytics and where pricing over a cycle isn’t sustainable.”

AI, MGAs and discipline

On reinsurer’s use of artificial intelligence (AI), Rose said she sees near-term benefit in process improvement, but believes the emerging technology will eventually transform how data is mined and interpreted.

“We’re certainly not harnessing the full power of AI yet to mine that data and draw the conclusions,” she said. “But the next phase will be a game changer.”

She also expressed concern over parts of the MGA and fronting markets where underwriting standards are seen to have slipped.

“Our concern is where is the underwriting focus in that chain? And we think that has been lost a little bit,” she said. “At the core of insurance has to be underwriting integrity. If you lose that from the chain, we don’t think it’s sustainable.”

Despite these challenges, Rose is optimistic about growth opportunities, especially in European and Asia Pacific markets within her ambit. However, her focus remains on building sustainable partnerships, built on discipline and mutual understanding.

“The key is to listen and understand the motivation for purchase,” she said. “Every single one of our clients is a partner, but they want us to partner with them in different ways.”