10th International Insurance Conference

Around 400 insurers, policymakers and regulators from around the world gathered in Madrid on 24 May 2018 for Insurance Europe’s 10th International Insurance Conference. The theme of the conference was "Overcoming underinsurance" (programme).

The event was opened by the president of the Spanish Association of Insurers, Pilar González de Frutos, who welcomed delegates and provided an overview of the Spanish insurance market (video).

The Spanish Minister of Justice, Rafael Catalá Polo, then took to the floor to discuss the role of insurance in the Spanish economy (video).

The newly elected president of Insurance Europe, Andreas Brandstetter, who is chairman & CEO of UNIQA Insurance Group, outlined protection gaps related to pensions, natural catastrophes and cyber risk, and said that badly designed regulation can be detrimental to consumers. He called on policymakers to take urgent steps to address these growing challenges (video, presentation).

Burkhard Balz MEP then provided a regulatory perspective, examining how improvements to legislation can help to address underinsurance (video).

He was followed by chairman & CEO of MAPFRE, Antonio Huertas, who highlighted insurers’ threefold contribution to wealth generation in society: by protecting against and compensating for risks; as financial savings and investment managers, and as country financers through their investment in national debt (video).

This was followed by the first panel debate of the day: “Mind the gaps — underinsurance problems and how to solve them.” It featured Pilar del Castillo MEP, Paulina Dejmek Hack, economic adviser to President Juncker at the European Commission, Monique Goyens, director general of the European consumer organisation BEUC, Alison Martin, group chief risk officer of Zurich Insurance Group and Cécile Wendling, group head of foresight at AXA. The panel was moderated by Insurance Europe director general Michaela Koller (video).

Next came three break-out sessions:

1. Including the excluded — financial inclusion & microinsurance (video). The panel comprised:

  • Manuel Aguilera, general manager, MAPFRE Economic Research
  • Recaredo Arias, director general, Mexican Association of Insurance Companies
  • Adama Ndiaye, president, Federation of African National Insurance Companies
  • Dirk Reinhard, vice-chairman, Munich Re Foundation, Germany
  • Moderator: Miguel Solana, senior technical officer, Impact Insurance Facility, International Labour Organization

2. Not such a disaster — mitigating natural catastrophes. Panellists were:

  • Jorge Claude, executive vice-president, Chilean Insurance Association
  • Dario Focarelli, director general, Italian Association of Insurance Companies
  • Maryam Golnaraghi, director of extreme events & climate risk, Geneva Association, Switzerland
  • Moderator: Alejandro Izuzquiza, director of operations, Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros, Spain

3. Back to school — ways to improve financial education. The panel comprised:

  • Adele Atkinson, senior policy analyst, Financial Education & Consumer Protection Unit, Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development
  • Diana Crossan, chair, board of advisors, Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center, USA
  • Guillaume Prache, managing director, Better Finance
  • Mirenchu del Valle Schaan, secretary general, Spanish Association of Insurers
  • Moderator: Ian Dull, Senior manager, ReD Associates, Denmark

After lunch, delegates heard a round-up of the break-out sessions from the moderators, who provided insights into the discussions that taken place (video).

Delegates then heard a keynote speech, via video, on natural catastrophe insurance from Miguel Arias Cañete, European Commissioner for Climate Action & Energy.

The second panel of the day, entitled “Grey matters — tackling the pension timebomb”, featured EIOPA chairman Gabriel Bernardino, Lard Friese, chairman & CEO of the NN Group, Governor Dirk Kempthorne, president of the Global Federation of Insurance Associations and president & CEO of the American Council of Life Insurers, Ricardo Rodríguez Marengo, CEO of ProVida AFP, MetLife in Chile and Javier Valle, general manager of VidaCaixa in Spain. The panel was moderated by Nathalie Berger, head of the insurance & pensions unit, Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services & Capital Markets Union, European Commission (video).

This was followed by another panel discussion: “Cyber risks — needed by many, bought by few”. Panellists were:

  • Nathalie Berger, head, insurance & pensions unit, Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services & Capital Markets Union, European Commission
  • Eduardo Dávila, CEO Iberia & Middle East, Aon
  • Norma Alicia Rosas Rodríguez, president, Insurance & Surety National Commission, Mexico
  • Andries Smit, managing director, Global Digital Factory & Asia Digital, Aviva, UK
  • Mamiko Yokoi-Arai, principle administrator & head of insurance, Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development

The panel was moderated by Professor Karel Van Hulle of the Catholic University Leuven, Belgium and Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany (video).

Insurance Europe's 10th International Conference received extensive international press coverage and a huge amount of Twitter engagement through the conference hashtag #InsConf18.

The video recordings of the conference debates are available on Insurance Europe's YouTube channel.

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