Munich Re strengthens APAC footprint by empowering local operations.

Munich Re’s Asia-Pacific business is “strengthening and fostering local operations” by giving offices in the region “stronger mandates”, according to Tobias Farny, chief executive, Asia-Pacific for Munich Re.

He told Monte Carlo Today that in the Asian markets business is good but remains challenging.

“We’ve been successful in establishing the Asian operations, we sit on good portfolios of business that produce decent results. But we have volatility, be it from nat cat or other areas,” Farny said.

He added the business had seen price deterioration between 2012 and 2018 as prices came down.

“There was a negative trend in the sense we felt prices were not always adequate. For the last 12 to 18 months, things have stabilised, which is good. Prices are subject to the function of supply and demand, so we still see room for prices to improve further in areas where, simply because of the last couple of years, they have been trending downwards for too long,” he said.

Explaining the company’s plans to build the Asia-Pacific business, Farny said: “What is important to us, and that’s where we have developed the company’s Asian operations, is to strengthen and foster the local operations.

“Over the last two years, we’ve been building and enabling the offices abroad with stronger mandates. We’ve moved a couple of the responsibilities into the region, for example.

“We’ve built a cyber hub in Singapore, and we’ve strengthened our agricultural business team, especially in India and China, because we see these markets are very large agricultural markets and we realise the necessity to make local decisions.

“They will always be based on good knowledge, so that is where we currently investing.”

He added that on the basis of strengthening the local footprint in the market, he is looking at a number of new areas, for example cyber.

“It is a global phenomenon that’s also true for Asia.”

Farny highlighted the launch of Munich Re’s Smart Thinking company in Beijing, which offers a consultative approach.

“We hired data analysts, IT specialists and people from digital backgrounds so that we have someone our clients, the primary insurance industry, can talk to, to build digital sales channels, etc,” he concluded.