Welcome to Chorus Call. Chorus Call follows the EU General Data Protection Regulation. For more information, please visit our website. Please hold for an operator. Please ask the operator which conference you would like to join. Okay, but what would you like to do? Okay, do we have the password to get access to the Q&A session? Okay, then you are not allowed to ask questions. Is that fine for you, sir? Okay, your last name, please. First name? Calling from which company? I connect you. Confirm that you've entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and 2. Participants are requested to use only hands while asking a question. Please hold the line. The conference will begin shortly. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Swiss Re Q3 Results 2026 conference call. I am Valentina, the call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing *1 on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press *2. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Elena Lutsenko, Head of Media Relations. Please go ahead. Thank you, and good morning, everyone. I'm joined today by our Group CFO, Anders Malmström. He will give you a quick overview of Swiss Re's 9-month results for 2026, and then we will be happy to take your questions. Anders, over to you. Thank you, Elena, and good morning, everyone. We delivered a strong performance in the first 9 months of 2026, achieving a group net income of CHF 4.2 billion. That's an increase of 3% compared to the same period last year and reflects a strong contribution from each of our 3 business units. We delivered this result while supporting our clients, paying out approximately $27 billion in claims across the Group. The result benefited from lower-than-expected natural catastrophe losses in the first 9 months of the year. Despite the overall low experience, we did see increased activity in the 3rd quarter. That included severe earthquakes in Colombia and Japan, wildfires across Europe and North America, and damaging hailstorms in Europe. In total, large natural catastrophe losses in the 3rd quarter across our P&C businesses came to $494 million, including approximately $250 million from the earthquake in Colombia. Despite the more active risk environment in the 3rd quarter, our P&C Re business delivered a net income of $2.2 billion in the first 9 months of the year. That's a small decrease relative to the prior year period, but a strong result in absolute terms. New business CSM, which measures expected future profits from contracts written during the period, declined compared to the previous year, reflecting the more competitive pricing environment. We're in the middle of the January renewals discussions now, so I would like to say a bit more about the market. Our discussions with clients at industry conferences around the world confirmed that market conditions vary significantly by geography and line of business. Pricing pressure is generally greater in markets with fewer losses, particularly in property nat cat. while additional capital is increasing capacity and competition. Our teams are well prepared to navigate the current market dynamics. We are staying close to our clients and brokers, identifying attractive opportunities, and supporting them not only with capacity, but more importantly, with our expertise and solutions. Let me give you 2 examples. We worked with a California-based property insurer that wanted to grow while managing its wildfire exposure. Our P&C Re and Risk Data Solutions teams developed a solution to monitor wildfire risk concentrations in real time, allowing the insurer to grow premiums significantly while keeping potential losses from major wildfires broadly stable. In another case, we helped a US-based insurer launch a new homeowners product. Providing the data and analytics needed to assess risks and support its expansion. Within 3 years, the business grew from zero to more than $150 million in annual premiums. The partnership has since expanded into other parts of the insurer's business, creating further commercial opportunities for Swiss Re. We're also using AI to bring our risk knowledge closer to clients. From supporting faster and more accurate underwriting decisions to improving claims handling. We're using AI to make it easier for clients to access our expertise and solutions. All of this illustrates our approach. Staying close to clients, understanding their needs, and finding new ways to support them. Even where we reduce our exposure in certain areas because the expected returns no longer meet our requirements, we can often find opportunities to expand our role elsewhere. And we are pursuing those opportunities with ambition. Turning to Corporate Solutions, our Commercial Insurance business continues to deliver consistently strong results. While Corporate Solutions is also exposed to P&C market cycles, it has different risk drivers, a different portfolio mix, and renewals still spread throughout the year. This provides additional diversification at group level. We're strengthening this further by continuing to expand in targeted lines. In the 3rd quarter, we completed the acquisition of QBE's global trade credit and surety business. Providing an additional source of earnings less dependent on the property market cycle. We're also expanding in attractive growth markets. Today, Corporate Solutions announced a strategic cooperation with Old Mutual Insure in South Africa. This builds on similar partnerships with GNP Seguros in Mexico and Bajaj General Insurance in India, which we announced alongside our half-year results. This partnership growth platform is an important part of Corporate Solutions' strategy to scale its business in these markets by combining our global underwriting expertise and capabilities with the local market knowledge and distribution networks of established partners. Now, turning to Life and Health Re. This business unit delivered an increased result in the first 9 months. Life and Health Reinsurance has very different characteristics from P&C Re. Many of the contracts we write are long-term, and the earnings pattern of the business is driven by factors such as mortality, longevity, and the performance of our existing portfolio over many years. In total, Life and Health Re has a CSM balance of $16.6 billion, which we expect to release gradually as earnings in future years. This year's performance also benefited from favorable experience, particularly in U.S. mortality, although we shouldn't assume that such developments will repeat in the future. every period. New business CSM in Life and Health Re was lower than in the prior year period, primarily reflecting fewer large transactions alongside a more selective approach to new business, in particular in the APAC region. We continue to invest in our transaction capabilities to strengthen our position in this market. We see attractive long-term opportunities, particularly as insurers look for solutions to manage their life and longevity risks. Moving on to our investment results. Swiss Re has a substantial investment portfolio. And the recurring income it generates is another important contributor to the resilience of group earnings. In the first 9 months of this year, that amounted to more than $3 billion. We've benefited from the higher interest rate environment over recent years, as we've been able to reinvest at attractive yields. Our reinvestment yield for the 3rd quarter was 5.6%, the highest figure in many years. And because our portfolio turns over gradually, the benefits of those higher yields continue to support our investment income. Now, moving to our efforts to simplify Swiss Re and improve how we operate. We are reducing complexity and duplication, simplifying structures and processes, and making deliberate choices about where we focus our resources. This helps us to make decisions faster, work more efficiently, and engage even more closely with our clients. As we have increased our ambition in these areas, We have also identified opportunities for greater cost savings. Earlier this year, we raised our cost reduction target to $500 million in annual run-rate savings by 2028, and we continue to make good progress towards this goal. At the same time, we continue to invest in strategic areas, including underwriting, data and AI solutions, and client engagement. Today, we announced the appointment of Lori Galterman, who will join Swiss Re as Chief Commercial Officer for Corporate Solutions, a newly created global role. Lori will lead Swiss Re's enterprise-wide strategy for corporate clients, governments, and distribution partners. She will bring together Swiss Re's specialized underwriting, risk expertise, technology, and global reach to drive sustainable, profitable growth. Finally, let me say a few words about capital and our financial targets. Our strong performance in the first 9 months puts us well on track towards our financial targets for 2026. We're also approaching the completion of our $1.5 billion share buyback programme. Looking ahead, we are realistic about the market environment. But we have strong foundations. We have 3 complementary business units, high-quality portfolios. Solid recurring investment income, and a clear plan to simplify our operations. Demand for risk protection continues to grow, and we are pursuing attractive opportunities while maintaining our underwriting standards. Our priorities remain unchanged: delivering on our financial targets and the Group's overall resilience. Given our strong performance in the first 9 months, and subject to large loss activity, we expect to place increasing emphasis on strengthening the Group's resilience in the 4th quarter. With that, I would like to hand back to Elena. Thank you very much, Anders. We'll now open the lines for Q&A. As a reminder, it would be great if you could limit yourself initially to 2 questions, and if you have more, please add yourself to the queue again. Operator, could we take the first question, please? Sure, and as a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and 1 on your telephone. The first question comes from Dyson Ben from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Please go ahead. Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I have a couple, if I may. Just the first one is on the full-year profit target. Obviously, you're at $4.2 billion for the 9-month stage and $4.5 billion or more for the full target. So, I'm just interested in why you're not raising the profit target, and if that's anything to do with the resilience buildup you just mentioned in the 4th quarter. Yeah, so if you could say more about that, that would be great. And then the second question I had was just around the higher experience, positive experience variance in P&C reinsurance. I mean, some of that's come from lower nat cat and some of it's come from reserve releases. So, I could just— I'd just be interested if you could say a little bit more about what's happened there, particularly on the reserve release side, and whether you can give any split between how much of the benefit has come from lower nat cats and how much has come from reserve releases. Thank you. Absolutely. So, look, I think on the first one, I can kind of reiterate what I said before. I mean, we really have these 2 objectives. One, achieve our financial targets, but also we want to maintain or even increase the group's resilience. And I think it puts us now in a good position with $4.2 billion after 3 months, target of $4.5 billion. want to be prepared for the future. And so that's why I think now in Q4 we put more emphasis on the resilient side. That doesn't mean we will not also make sure that we achieve our financial targets here. But I think it's always this combination. You know, you want to think longer term and not just for one year, but achieving of the target, well on track. And then we now go into Q4. On your second question about, you know, the split between you know, call it short-term benefits from lower NatCat, but also the longer term on the reserve releases. So, it's a mix. I think for the first 9 months, we had lower NatCat, which comes through. And you will actually hear more then also in the afternoon in the analyst call if you want to go in there. But we had very positive reserve development, particularly on the property side, in previous year periods. So, it's this combination that made up the the result. So, it's not just what we call good NatCat luck. It's really also, you know, call it prudent reserve assumption that then over time release. Thank you, Ben. Let's take next question, please. The next question comes from Natalie Olofors from AFP. Please go ahead. Hi, thanks for taking my questions. I would like 2 things. I would like to see if you could give us an indication about the heatwave and fires that followed during the summer. These are not large events. as like an earthquake, but how do they How do these events filter through your filter through the losses that Swiss Re has to cover? How are they influencing the expenses for natural catastrophe. And I would like to see as well, did you say that for the 9 months, the the large catastrophes are lower than expected. Can you give us a bit of color on the hurricane season? in the North Atlantic? The earthquakes, which are truly random. I don't think there's any kind of trend here. I mean, we had a few earthquakes. We had Japan. We had Colombia. We also had Venezuela, but just there's very little insured there, but that's very random. And then we have the more, call it, trending NatCat or developing NatCat areas like the heat waves, like the wildfires. And that's where we— I mean, obviously, that's where then insurance and reinsurance comes in. And during the summer, we saw a lot of of these, particularly now also in Europe. I think what we need to then, what people then need to understand, you know, the heat wave per se is not an event, but then there's consequences. And these consequences then go into the property insurance, can be agricultural insurance, depending where it goes. And sometimes it's not even insured. So even if you had a had an event. And so that's an area I think we also need to make sure we educate people about the risk they have being exposed to these events. Yes, so maybe I start. Look, I think overall when we talk about NatCat, I mean, we have obviously, as you mentioned, with different sources. I mean, it's the So, because for it to take wildfires, I mean, wildfires in Europe haven't been that prominent, and a lot of that is actually not insured, and so, but has significant consequences. So that's That's that. On the NatCat in total, I think you wanted to understand a bit kind of, you know, also from a numbers perspective, So we have a budget, what we expect, and in the first 2 quarters we had very little events, but in the 3rd quarter we actually had quite material events. We were still below the budget, but it was, it was much higher. And also hurricanes, I mean, you talked about hurricanes. We had this one hurricane. It is a Q4 event, so it's not in the numbers yet. It's early days. You don't need many, you need one severe, and that severe can have significant damage. And so maybe that gives you a bit kind of the color. of overall where we are. I would say last year there was no hurricane that hit, that made landfall in the US. So last year was exceptionally low, but how does this year compare so far to last year, but also to previous years? So, last year we had— we didn't have landfall in the US. We had a significant hurricane, we had Melissa, which hit Jamaica and a few of the islands. This year we had Isaias. I mean, in Q4. Look, again, I think it's not just a matter of how many hurricanes we have, and clearly we know with El Niño we have less Atlantic hurricanes right now, but we can have— it very much depends where it makes landfall. And that's— that can be very volatile. And so you don't need many hurricanes to have a severe event. So, for us, it's really important that we can support the clients here when something happens, that we are here. But it is a volatile business. So, some years you have more, some years you have less. All right, perfect. Thank you. Thanks, Natalie. Let's take next question, please. The next question comes from Marlene Kezevia from Reuters. Please go ahead. Hi, thank you. Yeah, I was just wondering also on NatCats if you could give us a little bit more information on how much of the losses of the $640 million of the 9 months came from 3rd quarter? Let me just, just Yes, I can give you the exact number. Um, The majority came from 3rd quarter. Um, Give me just One second. Thank you. Yeah, I think it's about, um, Looking it up. About, um, I actually, I need, let me come back on this one, huh? Because I don't have it. Thank you. Yeah. Do you have any other questions, Marlene? Otherwise, we'll get back to you with the number later. And then, yeah, that was it for me for now. Thank you. Okay, thanks. Let's take next question, please. The next question comes from Thomas Bohun from AWP. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning. Just following up the catastrophe events, just from a local perspective, can you say something about the hailstorms in Switzerland? What did this cost you and how did you see this situation? Yes, I mean, first of all, I mean, the hailstorms in Switzerland were very significant. It was not just Switzerland, it was kind of Germany and Italy at the same time, but it was one of the kind of the big events that we had this year. We don't disclose the exact number from a reinsurance perspective, but it had impact on reinsurance. I mean, for the total industry, I think the number I recall is about 1.5 billion Swiss francs that has been kind of published just in Switzerland. Part of it goes to the Gebäudeversicherung and the rest goes to the private insurers, but it also had an impact on, on the reinsurers. Okay, thanks. Thanks, Thomas. Let's take next question, please. Once again, to ask a question, please press star and 1 on your telephone. The next question comes from Jonathan Brodin from Finanz und Wirtschaft. Please go ahead. Yes. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. I have 2. Just an additional question on the hail losses in Switzerland. I mean, these were significant in terms of they were kind of new. They were slow-moving. It was an unusual time in the morning on a Friday, I think, and there was no rain before the hail event. So it was also very, very big. In terms of geographic reach, right? So my question is, has this been in the models of the insurance or reinsurance industry before, or was that kind of like a new event that wasn't seen before in terms of modeling? So what does that mean for your, you know, risk landscape in Switzerland in terms of hail losses for the future? And then a second question on the share buyback. You're approaching the completion of the current share buyback. And I remember back in February, you added— at initial, you presented a new framework for your share buybacks and you added additional share buybacks. as well, so totaling to $1.5 billion. Now, based on your resilient performance and good performance and resilience now, currently. Can we Can we maybe read into it that you will also present or launch a new share buyback in February or even in December on your Management Dialogue event. Thanks. Okay, maybe let's, let's start with the hail and the models. I mean, as you say, this was a very significant event, but it also was very local. So, it had local areas that were hit very, very hard, and just a few hundred meters next to it, nothing happened. Now, I think our models do kind of see these events, because, I mean, we had it now in Switzerland. We've seen it in other areas. This year, we had very significant hail in Canada. I think we had some significant hail in Australia. So, our models do see that, and So, this is not extraordinary in that sense. I mean, it's extraordinary now here in Switzerland, but it's not extraordinary in itself. On the share buyback, Look, I think we're going to give an update, a general update, on the 4th of December about kind of future targets, but also capital management plans. So, I think I probably have to wait until then until I can give you an update. So. I can just also come back to the questions about, you know, the large nat cats and for how much we had in Q3. So, we had 471 million nat cat in Q3, and that compares to a budget of $773 million. Just back to the question we had earlier. All right, thanks, Jonathan, for the question. Let's take next one, please. We now have a follow-up question from Ben Dyson from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Please go ahead. Hi. Thanks for taking the follow-up. Yeah, just the first one was, I guess, a quick follow-up on the first question I had on the resilience in Q4. I was just wondering if you could say a bit more about that and what sort of resilience it is, I suppose. So if that's going to be, I guess, reserve strengthening, and if there's any particular areas that you're looking to build resilience in, or if it's more of a general resilience that you're looking to build there. And then the second question I had was just on the January 1st renewals. I'd just be interested if you could say a little bit more there about the discussions and whether in particular you're facing any pressure to lower attachment points on property catastrophe business. And I guess whether there's any, from your perspective, whether there's any flexibility in that this time around. Thank you very much. losses to then increase your future investment income. But it can also be that you strengthen the balance sheet on the reserving side. So, it's not about specific, it's more about general resilience and putting us in the best position for the future. On the January 1st renewals, Okay, yeah, so back to the— to your resilience question. Look, I think we're more talking about general resilience, and that can be broad. I mean, it can be that you accelerate fixed income, Look, I mean, it's early. I think conversation has started. We still see the discussion mostly on price. So, terms and conditions are broadly stable. So, we don't see huge changes there. But look, I think literally the conversation started now. So, that's what I can tell you now. Okay, thank you. Thanks, Ben. Let's take next question, please. For any further questions, please press star and 1 on your telephone. Ladies and gentlemen, we have no more questions from the phone. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Elena Lutsenko for any closing remarks. All right, thank you very much for joining today's conference. If, if there are any further questions, please reach out to media relations. There will be an analyst call in the afternoon as usual, and you're welcome to join that in listen-only mode. And a reminder that we will be publishing our targets for the— for next year on 4th of December. Thank you very much and goodbye. Ladies and gentlemen, the conference is now over. Thank you for participating in the conference. You may now disconnect your lines. Goodbye.