How much capital is enough for an insurer — and how can companies maintain a comfortable solvency position without unnecessarily constraining growth? SCOR’s latest “Solvency & Reinsurance in Europe” study provides some particularly interesting answers, based on year-end 2025 Solvency II disclosures.

Now in its third edition, the analysis covers more than 2,000 insurers across the 30 EEA countries, complemented by data from the UK, offering an unusually broad benchmark of European insurers’ capitalization and use of reinsurance. One of its headline findings is that the median solvency ratio reached 227% in 2025, up from 220% a year earlier, while 56% of companies recorded an improvement in their solvency ratio.

Yet, perhaps the most interesting part of the study goes beyond measuring solvency. SCOR explores the relationship between business growth, capital requirements and reinsurance, particularly for P&C insurers. The analysis shows that P&C capital requirements are strongly driven by net premiums and argues that reinsurance can therefore serve not only as protection against underwriting volatility and peak risks, but also as an effective capital management instrument. According to SCOR's calculations, ceding EUR 1 million of premium may ultimately reduce an insurer's total capital requirement by around EUR 325,000. At a target solvency ratio of 227%, this would provide a benefit comparable to raising approximately EUR 735,000 in equity or subordinated debt.

The report also provides country-by-country benchmarks, including solvency ratio distributions, changes from 2024, business mix and reinsurance cession rates for major non-life lines. For XPRIMM readers, this makes the study useful not only as an overview of European solvency trends, but also as a practical reference for comparing individual markets and understanding how reinsurance may support insurers in balancing capital efficiency, resilience and growth.

Read the full SCOR report here.