Welcome
Welcome to our summer edition issue of the European Quarterly. As with this summer’s World Cup football, I hope your business is experiencing world-class performance, strategy, teamwork and execution. Our goal is to provide you with some summer insurance insights that will be useful for you as prepare for the second half of the year.
To start, we have a report on the 2018 International Congress of Actuaries (ICA) by Vera Bastheim, Senior Actuary, Business Development, RGA Germany and Central Eastern Europe. The ICA took place in Berlin in June, where actuaries, insurance specialists and senior executives from around the world came to share relevant, leading-edge ideas, research results and insurance insights. It was an honor for me and several other RGA subject matter experts to be asked to participate and speak at this event.
When it comes to sharing insights about our vision of the Insurance sector, our industry is very conservative compared to visionaries and disrupters in other industries who are not afraid to dream big and share those dreams. In his article, Defeating the Big Taboo, Adriano De Matteis, Managing Director, RGA Italy and Turkey, Chief Marketing Officer, EMEA, argues that it is time for our industry to the think and speak more boldly about our role in the future we envision for our clients, and learn from companies and sectors that have mastered the art of pursuing a higher purpose.
Smoking isn’t exactly taboo to the insurance industry, but there’s no question that it is discouraged. Does the emergence of e-cigarettes offer a meaningful hope for smokers to extend their lives and reduce their premiums? Leza Wells, Chief Pricing Actuary in our South Africa office takes a closer, and personal, look at what is known and still unknown in The Vape Debate.
Innovation is an essential part of RGA’s commitment to our industry; we don’t just endorse it, but seek it out. A good example is the annual Big Ideas Competition hosted by RGAX, the transformation engine of RGA. In Big Ideas: Startups Aim to Define Future of Insurance, we feature a Q & A with Kate Gillmore, Commercial Director with RGAX U.K. about some of the most intriguing insurtech advances in the EMEA region.
Mortality, of course, is still the focus of our business, but even here new technologies and experience are providing more profound insights into risk and longevity. In Understanding the Genetics of Cancer, Dr. John J. Lefebre, FRCPC and Medical Consultant for RGA International, explains how genetics is bringing new understanding to how cancer develops and mutates, can be treated, and also affect prognosis.
Current longevity and mortality trends were also the focus of the recent RGA “Survival of the Fittest” U.K. client conference, covered by Pollyanna Grimstone, Client Service Marketing Manager, RGA U.K. It was an intensive and interactive conference focusing on the extraordinary developments in genetics, investment strategies, market needs and products and services in our fast-changing world.
Several trends and government initiatives have increased the viability of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the MENA. Tamer Saher, Business Development Director, RGA Middle East, describes what these developments mean for insurers in his article, Middle East Update: A Growing SME Market for Insurers.
We wish you great success for the rest of the year, and as always, I am thankful for your ongoing support, trust and confidence.
Enjoy your summer holidays!
