Georges Bitar with Alaa’ Zohayri in Sharm Sheikh
The CEO and the Executive Director of “Premium Broking House”, Mr. George Bitar and Mrs. Karine Cherfane were present in Baden-Baden Reinsurance Conference representing Premium France and Premium Cyprus and obtained an update on the current Reinsurance Industry situation after the pandemic for the upcoming Treaty renewals
As we know, the Baden-Baden meeting is one of the key events in the reinsurance calendar and is attended by reinsurance professionals from across the globe
These meetings provide an opportunity for cedants, Reinsurance brokers and Reinsurers to get together to discuss the upcoming renewal of reinsurance contracts in the international markets
It is a ‘coming together’ of various experts and specialists in which each delegate organizes his or her own appointments. There is no official congress program
The appointments and meetings take place primarily in the Kurhaus, in the Kongresshaus and in the various hotels in the center of Baden-Baden
But before visiting Baden-Baden’s in Germany, Mr. George Bitar and Ms. Karine Cherfane participated in the third Sham al-Sheikh Insurance Rendezvous, which was held in collaboration with the Federation of Afro-Asian, FAIR, which prompted us to ask him three questions about this conference and its participants and the direction of returning companies in terms of contract renewals in 2022
Below are the questions and answers
Q: Being the 1st Conference gathering after the Covid-19 Pandemic, what is your impressions & feedback from the Conference
A: It’s a great initiative from the Egyptian Insurance Federation and specifically from Mr. Alaa’ El Zoheiry to be back on track for which we would like to thank them for their kind invitation that we were delighted to attend and meet again our good friends from the Egyptian insurance companies and the insurance industry in general
Q: How do you see the impact of the Pandemic on the insurance industry as a 1st feedback from the Conference participants
A: The insurance industry proved to be very resilient to the pandemic depending on the line of business we are talking about. This is because most of the industries in international markets received subsidized backups from local governments that compensated local businesses for the interruption of their businesses and loss of attraction and that contributed strongly for the insurance industry survive the crisis, despite some cases in Business Interruption claims in certain markets like France, Germany and the UK (and others like Australia) where insurance policies clearly mentioned coverage against Pandemic. These claims we believe will be contained by the local insurers with no long tail consequences in my opinion. Credit insurers for instance, projected an allocated reserves for 2020/2021 with almost 85% loss ratio that is now believed to be in the process of being adjusted very positively to almost 18% instead, and Credit Reinsurers will therefore, are likely to declare profit as a result, for the end of 2021
Q: What are your expectations for the Industry for this renewal & for the 2022 year
A: For our region, we believe the market is still hardening a little and still short of capacities and appetite for certain lines of business that is driving prices higher. There is as well a reasonable shuffling of the reinsurance markets that is driving the insurance companies in a trend to come back to the big boys in order for them to be well protected
We strongly believe the industry having survived the pandemic crisis and came out strongly, will be evolving and developing strongly, having learnt big lessons as a result, and more creative protections will be created especially in the under-developed territories
