Munich Re Group Annual Report 2006 (PDF, 1.8

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Munich Re Group Annual Report 2006 Other success factors Competence and state-of-the-art knowledge for our clients Intelligent solutions for new challenges Highly qualified and motivated staff Instrumental in securing the Munich Re Group’s sustained economic success are not only the high quality of our business operations but also a number of factors that cannot be measured by financial performance alone. These include: – Open dialogue with our clients – Our firm commitment to new, needs-oriented products and services – Our corporate responsibility towards employees, society and the environment – Efficient business processes for managing our Group and identifying or avoiding risks Clients and client relationships The Munich Re Group has different client bases in reinsurance and primary insurance. The reinsurance group works together with over 5,000 corporate clients – traditional insurers and captives – from around 160 countries. By contrast, our primary insurers service around 33 million policyholders throughout Europe, most of whom are private clients. The products and services we offer therefore differ accordingly. Reinsurance As reinsurers, we aspire to be the preferred partner in risk for our clients. Our operative business consequently provides companies wishing to cede insurance risks with the full range of underwriting products. In addition, they can benefit from our strengths that go beyond actual reinsurance cover: our financial strength, our knowledge, our solution-oriented approach, and the treatment of our clients as partners. We continued to be the preferred partner in knowledge for many clients throughout the world in 2006. In Munich and at our many offices and subsidiaries, we offer a large number of seminars and workshops each year on fundamental topics in all lines of insurance. Held in various languages, these place the emphasis on dialogue between 104 Management report_Other success factors our clients and Munich Re experts. We also stage numerous specialist events at our clients’ offices every year – forums, symposiums and seminars – dealing with current developments in the individual markets and ensuring a continual transfer of knowledge. Our two scholarship programmes, which offer highquality advanced training for our clients’ prospective managers, have enabled us over the years to strengthen the partnerships we enjoy with our cedants. Of course, we also pass on our competence to our business partners in printed form: in 2006, we brought out a total of 44 technical publications – in German, English, French, Italian, and Spanish. How much our clients appreciate this service is indicated by the some 1,150,000 downloads from our publication portal at www.munichre.com last year. Our solution-oriented approach to collaboration is clearly illustrated by connect.munichre, our internet client portal, where we provide our cedants with round-the-clock assistance: useful knowledge, services, analysis and quotation tools from the areas of property-casualty and life. This both supports primary insurers in daily business and presents a direct and secure interface to Munich Re. With its swift, efficient and safe interactive features, connect.munichre supplements and optimises Munich Re’s range of services and rounds off personal client relationships. The portal is currently used by over 860 insurers globally. Last but not least, our cedants benefit from our local presence. Branches and subsidiaries around the world ensure that our clients can always find us where and when they need us. We thus combine international know-how with in-depth knowledge of local conditions, to offer our clients individual solutions in every case. Primary insurance In primary insurance, our products and services are mainly for private clients throughout Europe, who make up the bulk of our clientele, along with small and medium-sized firms. They can choose from the full range of product groups: life and health insurance, property-casualty insurance, legal expenses insurance, travel insurance and assistance services, fund products offered by MEAG as the asset manager of Munich Re and ERGO, and bank products from our cooperation partner HypoVereinsbank. With this
Munich Re Group Annual Report 2006 Management report_Other success factors all-round offering, our companies are well positioned in the market: their clients can cover all their financial-service needs comfortably from one familiar and proven source. ERGO’s professional client management has been tested for client satisfaction and service by the German technical inspection agency TÜV and rated as “good”. The quality of its claims management is ISO9001-certified, for which regular on-the-spot checks are made in addition to the extensive audit and claims controlling that occurs. Research and development As outlined in the general parameters section, the (re)insurance market is subject to a wide variety of influences. The Munich Re Group concerns itself with these factors at an early stage so as to help shape them wherever possible and to adapt its products and services to the new circumstances or devise innovative solutions. Our 23 centres of competence play a special role here: they are active in many different fields, and the significance of their work sometimes goes far beyond the immediate world of insurance. Not only do they create the basis for identifying and highlighting new risks; they also help control them by making them insurable. Geo Risks Research, for example, supports our underwriting of natural hazard risks and is a much sought-after partner for our clients as well as for scientists and politicians. The Centre of Competence for Biosciences focuses on genetic engineering and explores the opportunities and risks of this key technology for the insurance industry. Other centres of competence deal with topics like the assumption of old loss portfolios (”customised portfolio solutions”), IT risks, directors’ and officers’ (D&O) liability and jewellers’ block – a line of insurance covering all the risks of jewellery business and the diamond trade – and also workers’ compensation. Lastly, our Knowledge Management Centre of Competence provides the methodological and institutional foundations for the constant updating and exchange of knowledge within the Munich Re Group, enabling us to secure, expand and efficiently utilise our most important resource – the knowledge of our staff. The centre of competence coordinates these activities centrally, advising the working groups about methods, continually optimising structures and processes, improving the infrastructure and so ensuring a living culture of knowledge. There are now more than 40 topic networks, in which 650 staff from over 20 countries are engaged. They expand our know-how, package it, and liaise with clients and colleagues alike. In underwriting, we have set up five cross-divisional innovation teams, i.e. interdisciplinary groups made up of highly qualified experts who work in close contact with the underwriting units to identify and tap new business opportunities. They help promote growth in the respective divisions on three levels: by supporting business transactions, by designing and adapting products, and by developing particular segment strategies. In this process the divisional units, with their direct access to the needs and requirements of our clients, remain the main source of new business ideas – the innovation teams act mainly as internal consultants and are the driving force behind the successful realisation of ideas. Our cedants benefit from these solutions in many ways, be it in the individual design of policies, in claims management, or in analysing and optimising a client’s portfolio structure. Thus, for example, in the health markets of Asia and Latin America, we are implementing a new business model called CRI (Consultative Reinsurance). Companies in these regions are faced with the challenge of utilising growth opportunities but at the same time managing the rising health costs and risks. We offer our clients ongoing consultancy as an integrated component in a reinsurance programme. Through our international network of health market specialists, we support them in introducing appropriate actuarial methods, in improving the efficiency of their underwriting, and in managing insurance fraud more effectively. CRI strengthens our role as an active partner in risk management. Innovative solutions that tap into new business potential are also developed by the divisional units from their direct contact with clients. This is the case, for example, in agricultural insurance in the US market, which is subject to extensive state regulation. Services, however, provide a lever for winning a larger market share. Munich Re has successfully taken advantage of this situation by entering 105
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Munich Re Group Annual Report 2006
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The Munich Re Group Our operations
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Munich Re Group in 2006 Tireless an
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Notable events in 2006 / Letter to
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Munich Re Group / Parameters / Busi
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Glossary / Index of key terms / Imp
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Quarterly figures Balance sheet 31.
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© 2007 Münchener Rückversicherun
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