SCOR : Everything you need to know

About SCOR

SCOR is a reinsurance firm that provides a wide range of financial solutions, analytics tools, and services in all areas related to risk – including life, health, property, and casualty. Its operations are divided into three segments: life and health, property and casualty (P&C), and investments.

SCOR’s life and health business provides added-value risk coverage and personalized services. Its products include mortality and morbidity risk solutions cover, protection against longevity risks, support for new businesses generation, claims management, and other financial solutions.

The unit’s risk solutions help clients to mitigate claims volatility and support them with a wide range of products covering disability, critical illness, personal accident, medical, and long-term care. Its financial and longevity solutions help customers manage their solvency and cash needs such as liquidity, balance sheets, and income statements.

SCOR’s P&C business unit, meanwhile, provides proportional and non-proportional reinsurance across property and casualty treaties. Meanwhile, its investment unit comprises the Group Investment Office and SCOR Investment Partners, an asset management company.

The Group Investment Office manages the interaction between SCOR and its asset managers, while SCOR Investment Partners manages the group’s investment portfolio.

History of SCOR

SCOR was founded in 1970 to provide financial solutions, products and services in France. It completed numerous acquisitions in the 1980s until it ranked 12th in the global reinsurance sector in the 1990s. It was also listed on the Paris Stock Exchange in 1990.

SCOR has continued to expand its products and services in various markets worldwide. In 1996, it acquired the Allstate Group’s reinsurance portfolio, reaching the top 10 reinsurance providers in the US market. In the same year, the group established SCOR Reinsurance Asia-Pacific and continued its expansion into other regions.

In 2012, the group launched the SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science to support research focusing on macroeconomic risks and other risks in the insurance and reinsurance sectors. In 2013, it acquired Generali US and the real estate firm MRM. It also entered into an extreme mortality risk transfer contract with Atlas IX and launched its new strategic plan, Optimal Dynamics.

In 2016, SCOR opened a composite branch office in India. In 2017, it opened a SCOR Global Life SE branch in Japan and a SCOR Global P&C SE representative office in Kenya. It also launched a new version of SOLEM, its online underwriting manual.

In 2018, SCOR acquired MutRé and sponsored a new catastrophe model, Atlas Capital UK 2018. Meanwhile, the SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science partnered with the Paris School of Economics to create a research chair on macroeconomic risk.

In 2019, SCOR launches its new strategic plan called “Quantum Leap,” which was extended until December 2022. This was the seventh strategic plan the company has launched and implemented since 2002, following “Back on Track”, “Moving Forward”, “Dynamic Lift”, “Strong Momentum”, “Optimal Dynamics” and “Vision in Action.”

SCOR has invested €250 million in the implementation of Quantum Leap, which focuses on three main pillars: bringing added value to clients in their digital transformation, expanding profitable new business opportunities, and strengthening digital capabilities around five key clusters (robotics, e-business, multi-cloud, big data and artificial intelligence). With the plan, SCOR is pursuing strong growth of around 4 to 7% per year and has set equally weighted profitability and solvency targets that are ambitious in the current financial and economic environment.

Leadership at SCOR

Thierry Léger – Chief Executive Officer

Léger joined SCOR as chief executive officer on May 1, 2023. Prior to this, he was group chief underwriting officer at Swiss Re, where he held various senior leadership roles. These include Head of Life & Health Products Reinsurance, CEO of Life Capital, and member of the reinsurance giant’s executive committee.

A master’s degree holder in civil engineering, Léger started his professional career in the civil construction industry before coming onboard Swiss Re as an engineering underwriter in 1997. He moved to Swiss Re New Markets, providing non-traditional risk transfer products to insurance clients and later became a member of the executive team in France as leader of the sales team. Léger also served as the firm’s Globals Division and a member of the Group Management Board.

François de Varenne – Group Chief Financial Officer and Deputy Chief Executive Officer

De Varenne served as interim CEO of SCOR from January 26 to April 30, 2023, before settling in his current role. He joined SCOR in 2005 as Director of Corporate Finance and Asset Management and was named Group Chief Operating Officer, joining the executive committee in 2007. A year later de Varenne was appointed CEO of SCOR Global Investments. In September 2021, his role expanded to management of several of the firm’s divisions, including investments, technology, budget, transformation, and group corporate finance.

Culture at SCOR

SCOR allocates considerable resources to the research and development of risk management. It works with students from renowned schools and universities to conduct research projects, and it develops corporate sponsorships and research partnerships with institutions worldwide to cover a range of fields linked to risk and reinsurance.

The group also organizes campus training sessions for their clients and addresses contemporary cognitive risk with the help of Presses Universitaires de France (PUF) and Editions Belin.

The SCOR Corporate Foundation for Science has signed partnerships that include research chairs in risk, macroeconomic risk, and finance and insurance. It also supports research in significant areas of risk analysis and participates in the development of actuarial practice in Tunisia and the Conférence interafricaine des marchés d’assurance (CIMA).

SCOR also recognizes outstanding actuarial research through the SCOR Actuarial Awards, which aims to encourage research and improve risk knowledge and management. Since 2015, the group has partnered with the French Institute of Actuaries to organize actuarial symposia in Paris.

SCOR is also committed to reducing its carbon footprint by securing the share of renewables, increasing energy efficiency within the business, and rolling out environmental management systems. It aims to reduce the carbon intensity of its offices by 30% per employee and offset 100% of its remaining emissions.