POWERED BY: BADENBADEN
Industry has a duty
to absorb the cyber
threat: Munich Re
RE/INSURERS MUST MAKE IT THEIR
priority to better understand cyber risk and
absorb more of this liability—serving a vital
role for society and generating growth for the
industry in the process, Doris Höpke, member of
Munich Re’s board of management, told Baden-
Baden Today.
Munich Re has pushed cyber risk to the top
of its agenda at the conference in Baden-Baden
this year. It was the key focus of the world’s
biggest reinsurer’s annual media breakfast
where it laid out the size of the problem in
stark terms and confirmed that it is one of its
main strategic growth areas.
Höpke highlighted the fact that cyber
crime will cost the global economy around
$600 billion in 2018—0.8 percent of global
GDP, a figure which makes losses from natural
catastrophes look small in comparison. The
10-year average for global economic losses
from natural catastrophes is around $180
billion, she explained.
In association with:
TODAY
Hamilton CEO echoes Duperreault’s message
AS CARRIERS REASSESS THEIR PRIORITIES
and refocus on making underwriting profits,
the use of technology and data science will
become key to achieving this, and give companies
with these capabilities an advantage, Pina Albo,
chief executive of Hamilton Insurance Group,
told Baden-Baden Today.
As the January 1 renewals approach,
Albo said there is an increased focus from
carriers on their bottom line and making an
underwriting profit. After many years of rate
Things are set to get worse as the world
becomes even more connected. There are now
some 27 billion connected devices globally,
and this is set to increase to 125 billion by
2030, Höpke said.
If digital services were to become
unavailable, the market would be faced with
a new type of vulnerability, where entire
economies may suffer, she noted.
The risk transfer industry must respond,
she said. “This as an explicit call to seriously
engage in this subject, to assess the risk of
cyber, to manage it and take the risk wherever
we can.”
Munich Re estimates that less than
0.5 percent of cyber losses are insured; in
comparison around 27 percent of natural
catastrophe losses are insured.
“There is a huge protection gap, especially
outside the US,” she said. “It’s not a
perception gap, as the topic of cyber risk is
very prominent. (continued on top of page 2) >> Doris Höpke
DAY 3
WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 24 2018
Run-off is ready
for innovation
Arndt Gossmann
14>>
A mission to
restore trust
Dylan Bourguignon
19>>
decreases, she noted, carriers are now acting.
She said an increasing number of carriers are
exiting certain lines of business, while others
are looking to become more client-focused
and relevant to their needs, for example by
bundling their capabilities and offerings.
Concurrently, Albo said, there is increased
momentum around data science and technology,
and an understanding of the urgency to
modernise businesses. New technology can be
leveraged to (continued on bottom of page 4) >>
Pina Albo