This year Argentina holds the G20 presidency and a G20 Insurance Forum took place this year for the first time ever in September in Bariloche, Patagonia.

Four Argentinian ICMIF member organisations Sancor Seguros, La Segunda, San Cristóbal and ADIRA  supported the project and helped to host the Forum. Alejandro Simón (seen on the far right of this picture), CEO of Sancor Seguros is one of four Co-Chairman of the Forum’s Executive Committee and spoke during the event. Alejandro Asenjo, in collaboration with Simón, describes the experience of the G20 Insurance Forum for us in this guest blog.

Our experience of the G20 Insurance Forum can be divided into two halves, on the one hand, there was the active role we took in the organisation of the event and, on the other, we have the learnings that we took away after having attended the Forum.

Regarding the first aspect, our involvement in the organisation of the event. We knew we had to be involved in the organisation of the Forum, as we knew that this was an unprecedented opportunity. An opportunity to not only demonstrate the significance of the insurance sector at the B20 (business) level of influence, a space previously only occupied by the banking sector, but to take our level of influence for the insurance sector to the highest possible level, that of national governments and the G20 itself. 

In addition, we knew that our participation in the Forum would bring huge benefits for the cooperative and mutual insurance sector which, despite representing almost one third of the world’s premiums, still needed to be showcased to the Forum, its participants and the world in general via the Forum.

The organisation of the G20 Insurance Forum was carried out with great collaboration between the regulator (the Argentine National Superintendence on Insurance – Superintendencia de Seguros de la Nación or SSN) and the insurance sector. This was taken care of by a number of Argentinian ICMIF members which came together to help with both financing the event and the logistics. This meant we were able to create an excellent agenda with prestigious speakers who shared their great knowledge in each of the topics addressed during the Forum.

After the resounding success of the Forum, there were some clear learnings come out of the event: Networking, working together and collective intelligence will always give superior results to what individuals can do alone; altruism is an essential characteristic for working together; and, we must always seek out the best information about our sector to then promote what we do and then use this knowledge to influence others.

Undoubtedly, we are definitely keen to continue engaging in similar experiences such as the G20 Insurance Forum. These experiences give us very clear lessons and we know that these lessons not only contribute to improving the quality and therefore the sustainability of our industry, but they also help position the Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Sector in its rightful place. They also help us to convince others that there is nothing better than a business model which has solidarity as its guiding philosophy and which therefore ensures it enjoys commercial success, because of these very characteristics, which is, of course, insurance.