Jean-Jacques Pluchart
Club Turgot attended the seminar on the insurance and reinsurance of systemic risks.
Daphné Le Conte des Floris (AXA) presented AXA’s latest study on the perception of major risks in 2025, based on a survey of 23,000 policyholders and 3,600 experts in 27 countries. The survey reveals an increase in the impact of claims since the 2000s. The main factors, in order of frequency, are climate change, cybersecurity, geopolitical instability (since 2025), social divisions (especially in France), and damage to biodiversity. The survey also indicates that respondents are aware of the inadequacy of the current governance of polycrisis insurance in democratic systems.
Rémy Lecat (ACPR) reported on the stress tests carried out by the ACPR to cover the risks posed by the climate and energy transitions. The tests show that coverage of the impacts of CO₂ emissions can be considered satisfactory overall, but that significant differences can be observed between regions and sectors of activity. The tests also focused on the coverage of property losses caused by clay subsidence and dam failures. They show that companies’ value chains can be severely affected by certain risks. These growing impacts will increasingly be covered by higher premiums and excesses, but also by ever-larger contributions from reinsurers and governments.
Amélie Breitburd (independent expert) proposed the creation of interactive online platforms to serve policyholders, bringing together insurers, pension funds, brokers, mutual insurance companies, private equity firms, etc., based on the model of the platform created by Lloyd’s. These platforms would make it possible – for example, under EUInc status – to collect data on claims, calculate losses, pool coverage and provide back-office support.
Edouard Viellefond (CCR) then presented the French ‘Natural Disasters’ scheme (CATNAT), which manages compensation for damage caused by exceptionally severe natural phenomena. This compensation scheme is activated following a ministerial order recognising a state of natural disaster. It applies to natural events that cannot be insured under standard policies, such as floods and mudslides, earthquakes, ground movements, avalanches and cyclones. However, CATNAT has been operating in the red for nine years, as the cost of natural disasters has continued to rise, reaching €6.5 billion in France in 2023. A reform in 2023–2024 introduced an increase in the CatNat surcharge (included in home and business insurance policies) in order to strengthen the scheme’s resources in the face of a sharp rise in climate-related claims. The reform also introduces a ‘presumption of refusal of insurance’, making it easier for uninsurable claimants to access cover.
One seminar participant pointed out that coverage for major risks is increasingly provided by the claimants themselves (who are uninsured or subject to high excesses) and by the state (which is increasingly called upon). Another participant noted that the more numerous and significant the claims, the higher the insurers’ financial performance.
At the European level, three directives regulate life and non-life insurance activities: Solvency I (introduced in the 1970s), which harmonises the minimum coverage rules; Solvency II (2016), which sets out the rules for calculating capital based on actual risks (market, credit, underwriting, operational – with two capital tiers) and defines the governance and reporting requirements for insurers; and Solvency III, which is currently under discussion.