As the Allianz Re Chief Market Officer, Denis Pehar is responsible for Allianz Re’s external reinsurance business. Our business with third-party clients has grown steadily, in particular in the recent past. Denis Pehar talks about what has been driving this growth and what Allianz Re can offer clients outside of the Allianz Group.
Denis, can you give us more insight into how business with external insurance companies has been developing?
For us, working with insurance clients outside of the Allianz Group has definitely been a growth story. In the early days, the main goal of our third-party business was to diversify the risk for the Allianz Group, but now our focus is on expanding our footprint and offering our expertise along with the financial strength of the Allianz Group to more insurance companies outside of Allianz. The numbers speak for themselves: Over the past two years, we have doubled our external reinsurance portfolio. In total, third-party business now accounts for about a third of Allianz Re’s premium.
What is the focus of Allianz Re’s reinsurance portfolio for external clients?
We are very proud of our international team of client managers and like to say that we serve customers on every continent except Antarctica. Regarding the composition of the portfolio, there’s an increased focus on Cat business, in addition to a dedicated team for agricultural reinsurance. Beyond traditional reinsurance we also support our clients with structured transactions. Our strong capital base and capital diversification is instrumental and we can offer a variety of products and services.
What are your plans for Allianz Re’s third-party business in the near future?
We see that the demand is there, so I am confident that we will continue on our growth path. A big new area of growth for us is in North America, where our colleagues of Allianz Reinsurance America are actively driving our reinsurance business. Previously we had been focused solely on run-off in our U.S. business, both of our own business as well as external portfolios. We also see additional potential working with our colleagues at Allianz X, the Allianz Group’s venture capital company. They focus on supporting insurtech companies, and we see many ways to support these start-ups with reinsurance, too. We will see where that takes us – there is definitely more room to grow!
Denis, many thanks for your time.
