Insuring business income and cashflow – Swiss Re Corporate Solutions

What is the focus for Swiss Re Corporate Solutions in Germany?

We are focusing on developing solutions for the real problems that executives have such as generating sales and managing cash flow and these services such as our Growthsurance are relevant to medium sized companies as well as large corporates in Germany.

What is Growthsurance?

We want to focus more on risks to a company’s income statement and cashflow than on the risks to the balance sheet. Traditionally, insurance has focused on, for example, physical assets such as office buildings and factories and covered them in an event of physical damage. That is still a very valid service but it is not the risk that the business leadership of most corporates spend time worrying about. They worry more about risks that could affect their financial plans. We want to position insurance coverage to provide risk transfer mechanisms that help support growth plans of the business.

For example, German manufacturers may be targeting growth in China, Japan, and Indonesia, all of which are prone to natural catastrophes. It is very possible that a nat cat event may occur in one location, which does not cause physical damage to the retailer, but because there has been a major event, the retailer may not get the footfall in their shops. That is effectively non-physical damage interruption. It is a service that helps companies secure their income against insurable risks but outside of the traditional property damage environment.

When did Growthsurance launch?

We have been doing Growthsurance for two or three years but this year, we have brought it under the brand Growthsurance.

Essentially, we are trying to move away from products. Products are yesterday’s thinking. We want to work on solutions that are ultimately bespoke to the company.

What other risks lie ahead for German risk managers?

It is important that risk managers do not allow themselves to become insurance buyers. Risk managers can be more strategic and they should be actively engaged with commercial departments because they can help add value.

This is happening in some cases. We are dealing with a retailer who is looking at weather protection for particular weeks of the year. For example, if in October, a company stocks a lot of winter clothing but the weather is unusually warm for that time of year, the retailer could end up with a lot of product not moving. These are income statement relevant products.