Maamoun Rajeh, Arch Re Focused on service


Interview:


During negotiations it is important to present clients with a true picture of our intentions, Maamoun Rajeh, Arch Re’s president and CEO tells Baden-Baden Today.


What is Arch Re’s strategy to navigate through these increasingly challenging market conditions? The challenge we face at Arch Re is similar to that faced by our peers in the market: how to remain relevant to clients and broker partners. Innovation is a key part of our strategy going forward. The way we try to do this is by listening intently to their needs and then taking a critical look at our ability to service those needs. Over the years that single-mindedness


has translated into numerous success stories for Arch and our clients. My belief is that Arch and the


reinsurance community as


a whole possess an enviable repository of risk expertise. This is borne out of years of


“Following months of working closely with our brokers since our April 1 launch, Watford Re is being differentiated from those entities which are hedge fund-backed.”


he perception that cedants are retaining more risk is not strictly true, Alkis


working closely with our key brokers through trials and errors, and lessons learned along the way. Collectively we have all the raw materials we need to constantly innovate.


One such innovation is Watford Re, which has been labelled a game-chang- er in the market. Can you update us on its progress? Watford Re is the latest example of our desire to provide an innovative solution to our brokers and clients where, frankly, our existing toolkit lacked a stand-out offering for certain product lines. The figures will be disclosed in our regular quarterlies, but the part that is most gratifying from my perspective is that following months of working closely with our brokers since our April 1 launch, Watford Re is being differentiated from those entities which are hedge fund-backed. Broker support and client acceptance has


been tremendous. There is a true appreciation that Watford Re is a standalone, multiline,


Maamoun Rajeh


risk-taking reinsurance company that will be around for as long as its clients are in business.


What are your aspirations for this year’s Baden-Baden meetings? I have many. Mainly I hope my colleagues and our peers in the industry provide the service that our clients and brokers count on, and that is to express our views on upcoming renewals objectively— whatever those views may be. We are all slightly guilty of


abdicating from fear of


21.10.14 TUESDAY


looking less


accommodating and leaving our partners guessing what we truly intend to do with their programmes. Aside from that, we are here to listen to


the needs of our clients, and see if there is something innovative we can come up with. n


Maamoun Rajeh is president and CEO of Arch Re. He can be contacted at: mrajeh@archre.bm


Bigger retention a consequence, not a target T


contracts will be hit in any one year. Now clients have understood that they can


Tsimaratos, regional director, head of Europe West for Willis Re, told Baden-Baden Today. He said that cedants are in fact retaining


differently as opposed to retaining more, rearranging their risk in a more efficient manner that leads to cost savings and sometimes a reduction of reinsurance buying. “Whereas a client might historically have treaties for their lines of


bought separate


business, they are now looking at this on a consolidated basis and are asking ‘why make multiple purchases when some of it could be grouped in one treaty?’,” he said. He added that these clients are spending less


by keeping diversification in-house rather than ceding outside. A reinsurer might historically have written separate treaties for a client and made a profit over the fact that not all four


capture that effect in-house and are ceding more strategically. Formulating


the risk appetite on


performance and capital management targets is the underlying driver of that change. “The total reinsurance spend may be different


but it doesn’t necessarily mean clients are retaining more. Clients are more sophisticated and are ‘savvy shoppers’. The understanding of risk has evolved and clients are buying only what they need,” Tsimaratos said. “They are also looking at risk at a group


level, as a whole, and designing strategies that are group approaches rather than strategies by lines of business, as used to happen.” While he agrees that this is a current


challenge for the industry, Tsimaratos also sees it as an opportunity for those in an advisory role.


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“Willis Re’s aim


has been the same over the years— we are positioning ourselves as product- neutral advisors to clients as well


as


transaction executers. We are not only looking to place covers, we provide analytical advice and execute on the back of that advice. “If that advice is to retain, we will advise


clients to retain. Willis Re is in the position grow by market share. Other market leaders can find this trend a challenge because such advice can be detrimental to their revenues. “Our aim is to keep positioning ourselves as


trusted risk-based capital advisors for insurance companies and to organise ourselves in order to deliver excellence of that advice at every point of sale.” n


DAY 2: Tuesday October 21 2014 | BADEN-BADEN TODAY | 15


Alkis Tsimaratos


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