Video presentation
ICMIF centenary fireside chat: Christoph Lamby, R+V (Germany)
At the recent ICMIF Meeting of Reinsurance Officials (MORO) 2022 in Wiesbaden, Germany, ICMIF CEO Shaun Tarbuck took the opportunity to speak with Dr Christoph Lamby, Member of the Board of Management of R+V Versicherung; and CEO of R+V Re, the assumed reinsurance business unit of the R+V Group – and the host company for MORO 2022.
Like ICMIF, R+V is also celebrating its centenary year in 2022. Hosting the ICMIF MORO as well as the AMICE Congress were two ways the German cooperative insurer was commenmorating the historic year – making sure to celebrate with employees, retirees, business partners, customers and the public.
Shaun and Christoph discuss the challenges that R+V Re are facing in the reinsurance market. Recent significant events, such as the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and ongoing impact of climate change, are all global and so not good for diversification. As the 15th largest non-life reinsurer in the world, global diversification is integral for R+V Re. Therefore, access to the global contacts through ICMIF’s network is extremely valuable.
As Christoph puts its, “networking, networking, networking” is the greatest value that R+V gets from being a member of ICMIF. Networking on a global basis helps R+V to do business within the “ICMIF family”, where it enjoys stronger and deeper relationships than through other networks or industry events.
Branding itself as the “Cooperative Reinsurer”, being part of the R+V cooperative group and dealing with the majority of clients that are cooperative and mutual insurers, helps it deal with volatility in the market, as the organisation – along with its clients – can take a longer term perspective.
As a recent signatory of the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and the Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI), Christoph also discusses the role that (re)insurers can play in the fight against climate change.
Dr. Christoph Lamby began his professional career at Gerling, Cologne, in 1989. From 1997 to 2000 he worked for Gerling Global Re in New York. After joining R+V Re in 2002 he became a Member of the Board of Management of R+V Versicherung AG in 2004, with responsibility for the Reinsurance Business Unit.
Dr. Lamby received his PhD at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Cologne in 1993. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of ICMIF.
About R+V
R+V is one of the market leaders in the German insurance industry. The premium income of R+V Group surpassed EUR 20 billion in 2021, as almost 9 million customers with around 26.5 million contracts trust the services of R+V.
As part of the DZ BANK Group, R+V belongs to the Genossenschaftliche FinanzGruppe, the cooperative financial group of the National Association of German Cooperative Banks (BVR), which represents all the cooperative banks in Germany and, based on total assets, is one of the largest private financial service organizations with more than 30 million customers in Germany.
The business activities of R+V are divided into three business areas: direct property and casualty insurance business, direct life and health insurance business; and assumed reinsurance business. As a German-based worldwide reinsurer, R+V Re ranked with over EUR 3.7 billion gross premium income among the top 15 non-life reinsurance companies worldwide in 2020.
For R+V as a cooperative company, acting responsibly towards the environment, employees, customers and society has always been a matter of course, because the basic cooperative idea combines economic success with socially responsible action.
Shaun Tarbuck:
Welcome to these fireside chats we do with our CEOs and our leaders of ICMIF, and today we are joined by our host at the MORO meeting here, Christoph Lamby from R+V, who is the CEO of R+V Re. Christoph has been on the board of ICMIF for about 12 years now, but has been also engaged in ICMIF’s reinsurance work for about 20 years. So Christoph, we are both celebrating our hundred year anniversary this year…[Like ICMIF, R+V was also founded in 1922]
Christoph Lamby:
Congratulations to you
Shaun Tarbuck:
And to you as well. It was a great year, obviously in 1922. What are you doing to celebrate and how’s R&V promoting themselves in the market?
Christoph Lamby:
Well, there are multiple things going on. One is we are hosting MORO. In a months’ time, we will be hosting, as R+V, the AMICE Congress. Then in September, we will have a big conference here in Wiesbaden, which will be a conference which will be open to the public on the one side, but it will be in combination with a big party for all the employees and retirees from R+V and R+V Re.
Shaun Tarbuck:
Excellent. So in terms of R+V Re, the reinsurance side that you run, what are the key challenges you’re seeing for your business?
Christoph Lamby:
Well, the past few years have been challenging from multiple perspectives. There was a lack of investment income to begin with and then we had multiple issues coming from the natural catastrophe side, coming from Covid-19. Now this year we have the conflict of Russia and Ukraine – with all the impacts. So these were just a few impacts which were significant, and all of them were significant from one aspect: they basically are not really good for global diversification.
That’s probably the underlying problem. Climate change is affecting the whole globe. Covid-19 had an impact on the globe. The Russian-Ukraine conflict with all the impacts, it’s a global impact. So now we have the disruption of providing microchips to the industry worldwide. All these are issues affecting the whole globe which make regional, national diversification almost impossible. That’s a big challenge which ultimately leads to the challenge we have to get more money into the whole system in order to cope with the lack of regional diversification.
Shaun Tarbuck:
I mean remember you said earlier today that you were the 15th largest reinsurer in the world on the P&C side, but you have made great connections with members over the many years through the MORO meetings, has that global network helped you considerably to diversify the risk as well?
Christoph Lamby:
Yeah, yeah, so, of course if you want to be active as a P&C reinsurance company, you have to be active globally. And being member of ICMIF is of help, because ICMIF is a global organization. And that’s exactly where networking with your members of ICMIF is of great help.
Shaun Tarbuck:
And you brand yourself as the “Cooperative Reinsurer” how important is that that branding to you and your customers or the others that use your services?
Christoph Lamby:
That’s a good question. Of course, it’s playing with words a little bit on purpose. We strongly believe that ultimately we can help our clients to become successful only if we do understand them. If we do understand them over time, if we do support them over time, managing the volatility of our clients as a reinsurer requires having a long breath, taking a long perspective – So it’s not a One-Shot game, It’s a long-term game. This is where being part of a cooperative organization as R+V is, and as most of our clients being themselves mutuals or cooperatives, all of us have a long-term perspective on things and that definitely helps providing the values of our product, which is reinsurance.
Shaun Tarbuck:
We know that reinsurance in the underwriting side is very important, but the investment side is also for you important, and I’ve noticed recently that R+V have signed a couple of the UN agreements, the PSI and I think the PRI agreement as well. Is that a conscious effort to showcase what you’re doing in the investment side – because you’ve been at this for a longer than most haven’t you?
Christoph Lamby:
Well, it was definitely no accident to sign those that’s for sure. It’s obviously the conscious decision. Well, we strongly believe – which pretty much is the mainstream these days – that we all have to maximize our efforts to cope with the climate change and wherever we can contribute to this, we will do. Of course this has to be balanced with economic issues, but ultimately it is in all our interests to enhance the battle against climate change. So these are just formal issues that we are very transparent about.
Shaun Tarbuck:
And very supportive obviously of the whole industry as well as the mutuals and cooperatives…
Christoph Lamby:
Absolutely.
Shaun Tarbuck:
So just moving on to what R+V uses in terms of ICMIF. I mean, you’re very engaged in many areas of the services we do and have been for a while and we thank you for that. But why do you continue to do it? What value are you getting?
Christoph Lamby:
Well the value of ICMIF, of course, it’s networking, networking, networking – and that on the global basis. That’s exactly where we have our market, which is a global market, and it’s very helpful to meet amongst family and friends. We strongly feel that there’s always a much better connection between the ICMIF members then just to be at one of our big industry conferences like Baden Baden, Monte Carlo or wherever. So it’s truly helpful to be within ICMIF to meet amongst family and friends.
Shaun Tarbuck:
Thank you and just lastly, [the ICMIF Centenary Conference in] Rome is our 100 year event at the end of October. What are you looking forward to there?
Christoph Lamby:
Oh, not only networking – this I already emphasized, but my experience with many MORO conferences and the big conferences, is there always great presentations, it’s always inspiring. And of course Rome should not be a bad place to celebrate. I know ICMIF was founded in Rome 100 years ago. I know I was not present in those days, but it’s always inspiring to attend those conferences always.
Shaun Tarbuck:
Thank you. Well, we’re all looking forward to that and hopefully Rome is the Eternal City, and we hope the eternal business model, is going to be the mutual/cooperative one and a 100 years goes into 200 years.
Christoph Lamby:
Right, I keep my fingers crossed!
Shaun Tarbuck:
Thank you very much.
Christoph Lamby:
You’re welcome.
The above text has been produced by machine transcription from the video recording. ICMIF has made every effort to ensure that transcriptions are as accurate as possible, however, in some cases some text may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors. Listening to or watching the video recording will allow you to hear the full text as delivered during the video but this is available in English only. Our transcriptions are provided to enable members to select the language of their choosing using the dropdown menu above.
