The FINMA Insurance Market Report 2025 confirms a banner year for Swiss insurers, even as premium volumes softened. Aggregate profit across the market supervised by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority jumped 135.8% to 24,419,825 thousand Swiss francs, up from 10,356,698 thousand a year earlier, with reinsurers accounting for most of the swing.
Swiss Re’s Reversal Fuels the Reinsurance Rebound
Reinsurance companies supervised by FINMA turned in the report’s most dramatic reversal. Their combined annual profit surged 491.4% to 9,776,153 thousand Swiss francs, up from just 1,653,112 thousand in 2024, according to the FINMA Insurance Market Report 2025. Return on equity for the segment climbed to 28.1%, from 5.9% the year before. The result marks one of the sharpest single-year reversals FINMA has recorded in its market-wide statistics, and it shows how quickly reinsurance pricing and capital markets can swing segment profitability from one year to the next.
Swiss Re Group companies were the single biggest driver of that swing. Following a capital restructuring, the group posted a profit of CHF 7.6 billion, compared with a loss of CHF 591 million the previous year — a turnaround that echoes a record half-year profit reported separately by Europe’s largest reinsurer and another major European reinsurer beating its own profitability target. The rebound came despite headwinds elsewhere in the segment: gross premiums written by reinsurers fell 6.1% to 56,376,067 thousand Swiss francs, from 60,048,155 thousand in 2024, and total assets fell 4.2% to CHF 212.8 billion. Equity capital before profit allocation, however, rose 24.3% to CHF 34.8 billion, while the segment’s average SST solvency ratio slipped 4 percentage points to 231%.
Non-Life Carriers Post a Blowout Year on Underwriting Discipline
Non-life insurers had their own strong year, without reinsurance’s balance-sheet drama. Total annual profit for the segment reached CHF 12.9 billion in 2025, an increase of 81.2% on 2024, powered by disciplined underwriting: FINMA’s tables show an average combined ratio of 86.0%, a result the regulator itself called very good. Investment income helped too, with the segment’s return on investment rising from 5.0% to 7.8%. That combination — premium resilience, tight claims management and firmer investment income — is the kind of balanced result underwriters have been chasing since the property and casualty pricing cycle began hardening a few years ago.
Capital strength improved in step with profitability. The average SST solvency ratio for non-life insurers rose 16 percentage points to 285%, from 269% in 2024, while the tied-assets coverage ratio — the buffer insurers must hold to protect policyholder claims — climbed 5 percentage points to 129%, from 124%.
Life Insurers Post a Steadier Gain as Investment Yields Slip
Life insurers posted more modest but still positive momentum, according to the regulator’s underlying data. Written gross premiums rose 3.7% overall in 2025, reaching CHF 24.53 billion. Investment returns told a different story: the segment’s return on investments fell to 2.31%, yet aggregate annual profit still rose 10.2% to CHF 1.75 billion. The divergence between falling yields and rising profit suggests life insurers leaned on mortality and expense margins rather than investment income to protect earnings, a pattern regulators tend to view favourably from a resilience standpoint.
Capital metrics improved alongside earnings. Return on equity for life insurers rose significantly to 17.49%, from 15.25% in 2024. The average SST solvency ratio improved 9 percentage points to 236%, from 227%, and the tied-assets cover ratio edged up to 108%, from 107%.
A Shrinking Market Consolidates Around Fewer, Larger Players
None of these gains happened in isolation from a broader industry reshuffle. The total number of insurance companies and general health insurance companies supervised by FINMA fell to 192, from 195 in 2024, with the non-life segment alone shrinking to 114 carriers, from 118. Market-wide gross premiums written slipped 0.6% to 149,107,642 thousand Swiss francs, from 150,042,908 thousand, while total investments held broadly steady at 524,587,157 thousand francs, against 525,258,579 thousand a year earlier. The total market’s return on equity climbed to 26.93%, from 13.13%, an increase of 13.80 percentage points, while its SST solvency ratio rose 8 percentage points to 254%, from 246%, and its tied-assets coverage ratio edged up to 112%, from 110%.
The merger of two long-standing Swiss composite insurers closed on 5 December 2025, when Helvetia merged with Baloise, folding one of the market’s most recognisable brands into a single group. Further down the non-life ranking, AXA Versicherungen remained the largest insurer in the direct Swiss business, with premiums written of 4,148,390 thousand francs and a market share of 18.4%, up from 18.2% in 2024. The results land alongside continued supervisory scrutiny of individual carriers — FINMA’s enforcement action against one of the country’s largest insurers earlier this year underscored that strong sector-wide numbers have not eased the regulator’s oversight of individual firms. Together, the data suggest a Swiss market that is smaller by headcount, better capitalised, and increasingly concentrated around a handful of large domestic and multinational players.
