VIDEO: Exclusive: KOLLER, CEA: the insurance industry has been a stabilizer in a very uncertain environment
The insurance industry has been, to a certain extent, a stabilizer in a very uncertain environment. This does however not necessarily help the industry, in the sense that we are not completely insulated from any legislative activity. There is of course a lot of legislative activity, not just at European level, but also at international level, and in that respect we will also feel the crisis, beyond the economic impact", Michaela KOLLER, Director General CEA (The European Insurers and Reinsurers Federation), has said in an exclusive interview for PRIMM Insurance & Pensions Magazine.
"This is clearly a time when we are every day experiencing the after-shocks of the crisis, but we experienced it more on the legislative side. When we look at our industry I think we can say we have been affected, it's obvious when you look at the investment portfolio of our members, but when you look at the overall picture of our market, with very few exceptions, the industry has weathered the storm very well", KOLLER underlined.
The current situation both at European and international level is that we should accept the fact that regulators, policyholders, also supervisors who are acting in the interest of the policyholders and generally Governments feel that we need to scrutinize the different roles of the different players in the crisis.
"While we have more of a side role, we are still part of a financial services sector, and in that context we are also under scrutiny. From my perspective, I think the judgment is out to what extent ultimately our sector will be subject to new regulations. But we are now in this phase where everybody is trying to draw lessons from where you are, trying to find the best ways forward", CEA official stated.
Because the focus is obviously on the banking sector, a lot of the ideas that are developed for banks are ideas that the insurance sector is confronted with, the differences between the two industries being a debate CEA feels very strongly about.
"Is it time, at this very moment, to come out and say: not everything that works for banking or for a different financial services sector is also working for us. May be you can take some principles, but then you have to find distinct, different regulatory responses for our sector. We have distinctly different business model, a distinctly different balance sheet, we have had so far different regulations. A different behavior is then triggered by the respective market players and we have also a very different risk profile than other financial services sectors", KOLLER concluded the subject.
Author: Andreea IONETE
on 09.07.2010
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