Events & Visits

GIC Re team from HO Mr. Devesh Srivastava, General Manger, Mr. Rajesh Laheri, Chief Manager and Mr. Bibekanand Sahu, Senior Manager visited Boston from 20th  Oct, 2019 to 22nd Oct, 2019 to attend American  Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) annual meeting.  RIWW team has been attending APCIA annual meeting since the last 6 years.

The Annual Meeting is a chance to network with APCIA members and non-members: insurers, reinsurers, and brokers of USA territory. It brings together leaders in the property-casualty insurance industry. The conference explores a wide range of topics to help senior management stay on top of critical developments and discover new and more efficient ways of doing business.

In addition to networking, the Annual Meeting presents General Sessions with Speakers drawn from various disciplines—economic, historical, political, and regulatory and examine key issues and the broader implications for insurance and reinsurance  business decisions. Industry-centric panel discussions were also a highlight of these sessions.

GIC Re team met with various present and prospective cedants and brokers during the conference. The meetings went very well. The continuity shown by GIC Re is much appreciated by the US market and displays our long-term commitment to the market. Being the most developed market in the world and with almost 40% of the world premium emanating from there, a major global player like GIC Re should make its presence in the market more visible. This is in tandem with the long term strategic thought of the Corporation.

The Singapore International Reinsurance Conference (SIRC) provides insurance professionals a forum to meet and discuss issues of the present, while taking stock of developments in the reinsurance market; and starting preparations for the following year’s treaty renewals.

The event of the theme for the SIRC 2019 was  “the Winds of Change”.   

With the theme: ‘Winds of Change’, the 16th SIRC addressed pressing industry issues such as the increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events caused by climate change, industry disruption and digital transformation, as well as the sustainability of the (re)insurance business model as operating margins narrow in the various sessions during the conference. While prominent thought-leaders from the industry shared their insights and experience on these issues over three intensive conference sessions, a large number of bilateral business meetings were held across meeting tables in the Lloyd’s Coffee House and the private meeting rooms hosted by over 200 participating companies on the conference floor.
GIC Re had nominated eight officials from head office and two officials from the Malaysia Branch.

FAIR in association with SCR Maroc, the host company, organized the 26th FAIR conference in Morocco from September 23 to 25, 2019. The conference was held in the beautiful city of Marrakech, also known as "Red City", the "Ocher City" and "the Daughter of the Desert". The theme of this year's conference was "New Economic Barriers in Afro-Asian Insurance Markets".
The FAIR Natural Catastrophe Reinsurance Pool (FNCRIP) was formed under the aegis of FAIR ( Federation of Afro-Asian Insurers and Reinsurers) to meet the reinsurance needs of insurers in the Afro-Asian region for natural disaster covers in a context of increased frequency and severity of natural disasters in the region.

GIC Re is one of the founding members of FAIR. GIC Re is also the manager of FNCRIP since the creation of the Pool which was launched at the 23rd FAIR conference held in China in September 2013.

The conference was attended by Ms. Reena Bhatnagar, GM and Co-Leader, Mr. Shashikant Narayan More, GM, Mr. Dhyanraj Gawade, CM and Miss Trishtina Hembram, AM. In addition, GIC Re Dubai Branch and GIC Re South Africa were present and were represented by Mr. Sajan Varghese, AGM, Ms. Aditi Sharda, DM and Mr. Charles Asirvatham, AGM.

The conference witnessed meetings of FAIR, Pools and the FAIR Syndicate. As an active member of FAIR, GIC Re attended the meeting of the FAIR Board of Directors, during which GIC Re, as pool manager, presented a report on the FNCRIP. GIC Re enumerated the efforts made by the pool manager to increase the activity of the pool despite many obstacles. GIC Re received praise from house members for its exemplary performance.

Mrs. Reena Bhatnagar, GM and co-lead was also invited for the first time to attend the FAIR Steering Committee meeting and present a report on the FNCRIP.

During the FAIR General Assembly, for the first time, GIC Re was selected as a member of the FAIR Steering Committee, replacing a member company from China. The selection was made on the basis of certain criteria, to name a few, namely regular participant of FAIR meetings, Pool manager, etc.

GIC Re as Manager of the FNCRIP also organized the meetings of the Technical Board and the General Assembly of the Pool. The General Assembly is the supreme authority of the Pool while the Technical Board considers the technical aspects of the Pool.
Mrs. Reena Bhatnagar, GM and Joint-in-Charge gave a presentation on FNCRIP activity and performance during the Technical Board meeting. The meeting took place in the presence of Mr. Adel Munir, Secretary General of FAIR and chaired by Mr. Malcolm Fonseca, Chairman of the technical council of the pool and Head of Retro, Trust Re, Bahrain who took up the points of the order of the day prepared by the pool manager one by one. Subsequently, these agenda items were subsequently ratified by the General Assembly. These meetings gave rise to fruitful exchanges and GIC Re as Pool Manager again received the laurels of the members of the Pool.

The meetings of FAIR Non-Life Reinsurance Pool managed by Milli Re, Turkey and FAIR Aviation Pool, managed by SCR, Morocco were attended by Ms. Reena Bhatnagar while Mr. Shashikant N. More, GM, attended the meetings of FAIR Oil and Energy Syndicate, managed by Trust Re, Bahrain.

In order to market the FNCRIP, several bilateral meetings were held with brokers, insurance and reinsurance companies in the Afro-Asian region. The conference newsletter also featured the full-page interview of Ms. Reena Bhatnagar, Managing Director and Co-Convener.

This conference provided a platform for GIC Re to meet international delegates and updated on current trends in the Afro-Asian insurance and reinsurance market. The conference was also an opportunity to market GIC Re & FNCRIP to secure new business and further consolidate existing business relationships.

Previews of the conference:

The 48th Baden Baden Congress was held from 20.10.2019 to 24.10.2019.  The Conference provides an opportunity for cedants, brokers and re/insurers from across the globe to get together not only to discuss the renewal of reinsurance contracts prior to the major renewals season in January but also to exchange views and ideas on issues faced by the (re)insurance industry.  

The GIC Re team was led by Joint In-charge Mrs. Reena Bhatnagar, GM Mr. N. Ramaswamy, DGMs. Mrs. Girija Subramanian and Mr. Hitesh Joshi, AGM Ms Hygina Pinto and Chief Manager Mr. Shaji Thomas.  

The meetings conducted at this Conference with various business partners have helped build and grow our international book of business as well establish relationships with good “A” rated reinsurers who provide solutions as well as support us on our various Retro programmes.      

This year’s topic at the Guy Carpenter Symposium was  “Is re/insurance ready for Industry 4.0?  The tech opportunities posed by Industry 4.0, otherwise known as the fourth industrial revolution, were the focus of the event.   

Over the past few years the participants have discussed about how reinsurers financial results were impacted by the series of losses.  There is a growing expectation that a significantly tighter retro market will add momentum to property cat reinsurance renewals at 1 January with Typhoon Hagibis coming hot on the heels of Faxai.  Besides the nat cat events, the effects of climate change becoming increasingly apparent across the world was also a subject which get a lot of attention.  

For the GIC Re team, the interactions with various stakeholders have been very fruitful.  It was heartening to see GIC Re being well recognised and acknowledged in the Reinsurance world.