Dupplin Speaks At Qatar Conference
The insurance industry is not doing a good enough job of explaining its resilience in the face of recent adversity, according Hiscox Bermuda chief executive Charles Dupplin [pictured].
Speaking to delegates at the MultaQa 2012 re/insurance conference in Qatar today [Mar. 13], he said UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne had recently complained to insurance trade body the Association of British Insurers about their poor communication skills.
“George Osbourne remarked to the Association of British Insurers that he felt that the non-life industry was not communicating to politicians enough about how successful they have been,” Mr. Dupplin said. “He was told that there haven’t been any major bankruptcies and that all valid claims have been paid even in a filthy year like 2011.”
“The Insurance Times” reported Mr. Dupplin as saying the global insurance industry paid out over $100 billion in natural-catastrophe-related claims in 2011 without the typically strong buffer of investment returns to prop up underwriting results and in increasingly challenging economic conditions.
Yet no company has failed, and the industry remains strongly capitalised.
The industry also weathered the financial crisis well, while banks floundered. Unlike the banking industry no insurers — bar the exceptional case of AIG — have had to be bailed out by their respective governments. AIG’s problems were mainly related to its non-insurance financial products division.
Mr. Dupplin also called for a halt to what he described as the rising tide of regulation, including the forthcoming Solvency II capital regime in Europe.
“The Insurance Times” quoted him as saying the volume of new regulatory initiatives runs the risk of undermining the overall effectiveness of regulation.
“It is with some dread I see the tide coming in,” Mr. Dupplin said. “I think the tide coming in makes regulation — which I am in favour of — less effective.”
He added: “I think it is time for the regulatory tide to stop rising and in some areas to recede. I now spend vast amounts of my time on regulation and I’d rather spend more time running the business.”
Hiscox Bermuda underwrites property treaty reinsurance to high quality insurers as well as acting as an internal reinsurer to the wider Hiscox Group. Since its launch in 2005, Hiscox Bermuda has diversified into healthcare with a dedicated, specialist team.
The Bermuda firm is rated A [Excellent] by A.M. Best and A [Strong] by Fitch.
