Webinars @ Munich Re

Climate - Natural Disasters 2024: A deep dive into some of the year’s most relevant loss events

^{Join us for a one-hour seminar exploring the natural disasters that defined 2024. In what ways did the year stand out? From severe storms and earthquakes to wildfires, we’ll examine the key events that drove global economic and insured losses and discuss where climate change may be influencing their frequency and severity.}

Cyber  - Cyber risks and trends – 2025 and beyond

^{While digital interdependencies are increasing, cyber security has become fundamental for every risk owner. The seminar describes how vulnerabilities could be exploited by various cyber threat actors and provides an outlook on the near- and mid-term future of cyber security and the implication on cyber insurance.}

Casualty  - The “forever chemicals” PFAS – Claims perspective

^{Claims involving Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) are rapidly expanding throughout the U.S. and Europe. From long-tail environmental exposures to false advertising claims, the universe of PFAS-related litigation presents an array of challenges for insurers and reinsurers. In recent years, underwriters have sought to remove PFAS liability from coverage through PFAS-specific exclusions, but legacy policies remain unclear as to with whether PFAS-related claims are covered, in a rapidly changing regulatory landscape.} 

Cyber  - Tackling systemic exposure in cyber, including cyber war

^{Today’s cyber landscape is highly dynamic and of ever-increasing importance for the global economy. Insurers (and reinsurers) need flexibility and agility to respond to existing and evolving challenges. It is vital for a sustainable cyber market to limit systemic risks, the foremost of these being cyber war. This is especially the case in light of the current geopolitical situation; and considering several “near misses” in the past, the introduction of robust and future-proof war and cyber-war exclusions is key.}

^{The development of war and cyber-war exclusion clauses represents a great step forward for the insurance industry regarding the ability to control potential systemic accumulation from what is essentially an uninsurable risk. The seminar focuses on the fundamental considerations that led to the development of such clauses, the main systematic approaches, while also addressing the balancing effect on insurance books.}

Property & Engineering -Contingent Business Interruption (CBI) - supply chain resilience

^{Supply chains for manufacturing companies in various industries are facing continuously growing and newly emerging challenges. Numerous factors have a weakening impact on the resilience of supply chains, which causes a higher frequency of disruptions and more complexity in claim scenarios under CBI. The seminar will take a closer look at some of the supply chain challenges and their impact on CBI coverage, including ways to overcome them.}

Property & Engineering  -Property Catastrophic Modelling

^{Property catastrophe modelling, introduced in the early 1980s, has received a strong impetus in the past few decades thanks to the computational resources available and has become the leading methodology for quantifying and controlling the risk arising from various natural hazards for various client portfolios.}

^{The presentation aims to illustrate the basic concepts of hazard, risk, and “property catastrophe modelling” in a simple an intuitive way, with a focus on the needs of the (re)insurance world.  Some concrete examples from recent catastrophic events will be illustrated to better clarify the theoretical parts.}

Economy & Sustainability - Global economic outlook 2025 – new directions for the world economy in a post-election year?

_{The political, macroeconomic and financial market circumstances that drive the world economy remain complex. After a record number of elections in 2024, including in the three largest democracies India, the European Union and the United States, shifts in policies will impact businesses, financial markets and the overall economy alike. To what extent remains to be seen and needs to be assessed in the context of underlying global trends like geoeconomic fragmentation, demographic changes, climate change and major technological advances. The impact this will have on economic growth, inflation, interest rates and financial markets will also be relevant for the business of insurers and reinsurers in the years to come. This seminar will focus on these developments and provide an economic outlook for both 2025 and the years beyond.}

Engineering - Bridges ‒ Technology and insurance

^{The seminar will give participants an overview of the technologies used for constructing various types of bridges. It will address methods, but also hazards that can arise during construction. The final section will discuss loss examples and underwriting guidelines, and provide tips for underwriting.}

Cyber - Cyber accumulation risk management

^{In this seminar, we are presenting the challenges we are facing in cyber accumulation modelling. After that, we will present the approach Munich Re is using to measure its cyber accumulation exposure. Finally, we will give a short overview on the cyber accumulation models available in the market.}

Cyber  - Lessons learnt from cyber claims

^{Understanding cyber claims is key to managing cyber risk. This seminar combines claims data analysis with practical insights into cyber claims management. Participants will learn about claims trends and common causes of loss, and receive hands-on examples of how to manage cyber claims.}

Engineering - Sustainable construction

^{This presentation addresses the various risks and challenges associated with sustainable construction. While the benefits of eco-friendly building are widely recognised, implementing sustainable practices introduces potential risks that the industry must carefully manage.}

^{Key topics include the Munich Re approach with respect to ESG and biodiversity. We will also explore the risks associated with regulatory uncertainty and rapidly changing environmental standards, which may impact project timelines and increase compliance costs. Additional challenges include the complexity of sourcing sustainable materials, potential shortages, and the risk of greenwashing – where projects are marketed as sustainable without meeting genuine standards. Technical risks, such as the performance reliability of newer, sustainable technologies, will also be addressed, along with the need for skilled labour trained in sustainable construction techniques.}

Property & Engineering -Renewable energies

^{In line with the goals of the Paris Agreement, the energy system is undergoing a fundamental transition, which is even going to accelerate over the years to come:}

• ^{New power production capacity will mainly come from on- and offshore wind power and from solar PV.}
• ^{Battery energy storage systems (BESSs) will be added at a larger scale to balance out power production with power demand over time.}
• ^{Decarbonisation of sectors that cannot be electrified will require large amounts of green fuel to be produced (e.g. hydrogen, e-fuels, green ammonia).}
• ^{To use these new energy sources, existing technology needs to be modified or redeveloped (e.g. to make gas turbines hydrogen-ready)}

^{All the above developments come with new risks, e.g. renewable power assets are significantly vulnerable to extreme weather events; BESSs and newly developed hydrogen-fuelled applications have high fire risks. Furthermore, rapid technological evolution entails a number of risks which cannot be deduced from historical data.}

Climate & Property -
Climate of Change

^{Changes in the climate we operate in, the ongoing energy transformation we are just starting in order to limit the effects of climate change, and rapid advancements in information technologies are all topics that our sector has to deal with. Our experts will use examples from the insurance industry to show what ignoring change can lead to, and why professional risk analysis is now more important than ever.}

Casualty - Commercial Motor Underwriting 

^{Welcome to the third annual webinar dedicated to overcoming the unique challenges in the commercial motor insurance market. As insurers continue to face profitability pressures, the latest advancements in data and technology are transforming how they approach risk, pricing and overall business performance in this complex sector.} 

Engineering & Marine  -The Baltimore Bridge Collapse from a Marine Claims perspective

^{On the one-year anniversary of the largest marine accident in 2024, the background and causes will be examined once again and the current status of claims settlement and legal aspects will be highlighted.}

Casualty - Introduction to Munich Re’s AI insurance solutions

^{As AI becomes increasingly used by businesses in critical decision-making processes, there is an increased risk that a mistake by an AI model could cause harm, either to the company's operations or to third parties who might be affected by these erroneous AI decisions.}

^{Even the best-trained AI models will make mistakes, due to the probabilistic nature of their predictions. And any error that an AI commits is systematic in nature, meaning it will continue to make these mistakes until they are identified and corrected. However, the question as to how existing insurance policies protect insureds if AI goes wrong is still unanswered. Today, selected players in the insurance market have started to discuss or even launch exclusions in policies for AI-related losses. Conversely, affirmative coverage for AI risks is still sparse, but does exist. The Insure AI team at Munich Re has been insuring the performance risks of AI models since 2018.}

^{This seminar aims to outline the main risks arising from the provision and use of AI, and provide an understanding of what to consider when assessing these exposures for both insurers and insureds.} 

Climate - Climate change litigation

^{Climate change litigation is on the rise; in addition to ongoing attempts to establish liability for a company’s direct contribution to climate change, more and more claims are being brought against companies for alleged “greenwashing”. Although liability and coverage are questionable, insurers may have to bear defense costs, and there is a risk of case-law change, too.}

Casualty - Psychedelics and cannabis: Regulatory risks, claims, and underwriting  considerations

^{As the social acceptance and tolerance of psychedelics and cannabis continue to grow in many parts of the world, and for both medical and recreational use, corresponding regulatory, claims and underwriting risks are rapidly emerging. This session will explore how some of these drugs are being studied to treat mental illness and how the regulatory landscape is very much in flux, particularly in the US, where there are conflicts between state and federal laws.}

Casualty - The Potential Impact of Public Nuisance Claims - Regulation Through Litigation

^{An examination of the US plaintiffs’ bar’s efforts to use “public nuisance” tort liability theories to shift the burden of paying for broad societal harms from taxpayers and local governments to large corporations. We will also discuss what implications it could have for large corporations should these legal theories be accepted by the courts as a viable legal basis for determining liability.} 

Capital Solutions - Parametric Insurance

^{Natural catastrophes such as hurricanes or earthquakes can cause losses to property that are in some cases not or only partially covered by traditional property insurance policies. At the same time, in our increasingly digitalised world, more digital information, including that from new sensor technologies, is becoming available with regard to geo hazards. As a result, Parametric Insurance is increasingly being used to protect against risks otherwise considered to be uninsurable.}

^{The fact that independent third parties provide data for Parametric Insurance offers the parties involved good transparency and serves to offset potential conflicts of interest. Additionally, Parametric Insurance supports fast and lean claims processes, which makes the concept attractive for insureds and insurers alike.}

Engineering - Tunnel risks

^{To keep step with rapid population growth, both the scale and complexity of civil infrastructure are increasing. Especially in dense urban areas where free surface area is sparse, more and more civil infrastructure, including that used for transport and utilities, is being constructed underground.}

^{Tunnelling projects are accompanied by a unique combination of risks, including the inherent uncertainties associated with ground conditions. To mitigate some of this risk, the tunnelling industry has been at the forefront of developing innovative new construction methods, such as tunnel-boring machines (TBMs). However, there is always a residual risk in tunnelling projects, and this is where construction insurance continues to play a vital part.}

Casualty - Electric vehicles – Charging ahead

^{Stay informed and ahead of the curve with expert insights into the rapid evolution of EVs’ impact on the mobility and automotive insurance sector, as we continue to explore the EV landscape, including market trends, shifts in premiums, coverage options and claims developments.}