BRIEF: Travelers CEO: Trump Tax Changes Could Influence Who We Buy From

Jan. 24--It's not just auto manufacturers and Wal-Mart who have to worry about the possibility of the Trump administration penalizing imports and supporting exports through the tax code.

Travelers CEO Alan Schnitzer was asked Tuesday morning by a stock analyst about how a border adjustment tax, as the idea is called, would affect his company's purchase of reinsurance from foreign companies. Insurers buy reinsurance to backstop against very large losses.

Munich Re, which owns the Hartford Steam Boiler company, is the world's largest reinsurer. Swiss Re is the second largest, and Hannover Re is third. All three are European companies. Berkshire Hathaway, owned by Warren Buffett, is the largest U.S.-based reinsurer.

Schnitzer said, "It's really hard to answer that question without knowing what the border adjustment is going to look like. If there were a tax adjustment to change the cost of reinsurance, obviously we could look for alternative providers of reinsurance.... But I think the broader point for us is reinsurance just isn't that big a deal for us."

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