In an event held earlier this year at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center, ICMIF’s Greek member Syneteristiki Insurance, proudly announced to its partners, clients and the general public, its new corporate identity SYNDEA and presented its vision for a new era. Making the announcement, Syneteristiki Insurance said that it was looking ahead with new ideas and a modern corporate profile, whilst keeping unchanged the principles and values that have characterised the organisation since its foundation.

For the company, SYNDEA is not just a new name, it is a new promise, a new contract of honor with its customers and partners. The origin of the new brand name comes from the words SYN+IDEA, which include the timeless values of the company – respect for human and society, cooperation, teamwork, flexibility and thirst for innovation – and at the same time emphasise its dynamism and reliability, fresh look and new ideas with which it repositions itself against the new demands and needs of the society and the insurance market.

Syneteristiki Insurance – SYNDEA was founded in 1978 and is a socially responsible, modern, reliable and a dynamic company, covering the entire range of insurance, savings and investment products. Greek cooperative unions and banks own 50.55% of the company’s share capital while the remaining 49.45% belongs to other leading European cooperative insurance companies, UnipolSai from Italy and P&V from Belgium (both of which are ICMIF members) and Macif (France) which is part of (ICMIF member) the Aéma Groupe. These companies offer SYNDEA expertise and support in every strategic step.

SYNDEA says it has strong capital adequacy, a high solvency ratio and a wide range of insurance products. In particular, in recent years, the company has followed a course of continuous improvement in terms of its competitiveness, it has demonstrated significant flexibility in meeting the special needs of its customers and it has invested both in innovation and its human resources

In their speeches, both the Chairman of the Board of Directors Mr Alexandros Kontos as well as the CEO Mr Dimitrios Zorbas, analysed the reasons that had determined the change of corporate identity and the company’s vision, stressing that its fundamental values remain unchanged and that they will always govern its relations with all involved parties (shareholders, customers, partners, supervisory authorities, society).

From January of this year, SYNDEA says it is on a new course with a constant focus, as for so many years as Syneteristiki Insurance, on people and society.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr Kontos, emphasised in his speech: “With respect to its history, its principles and values, to its clientele with which it is largely connected following many years of cooperation, SYNDEA – Syneteristiki Insurance dares to show that it meets the modern demands and needs of the insurance market and society. It renews itself, shows its ambitions and evolves, as the times demand, in the context of the general dynamic development strategy it has followed over the recent years.”

Kontos continued saying: “I consider it important that the evolution of the company comes at the same time as the growth of the company, in a generally difficult period for the insurance market, but it also comes as a continuation of the extroversion policy that the company has followed in recent years and will continue even more dynamically in the future.”

The CEO of the company, Mr Zorbas, stated: “SYNDEA – Syneteristiki Insurance from 1978 until today, has dealt with the management of the risks it was called upon to face in the best possible way while at the same time being fair and quick in the compensations it was called upon to pay. It is a solvent company, with a solvency ratio close to 200% and it has rightly won the love of its partners and the appreciation of its competitors.”

He continued: “SYNDEA – Syneteristiki Insurance belongs to the large European family of social economy that owns 33% of the total turnover of the European insurance market. One in three European citizens is insured in a cooperative or mutual insurance companies.

“Our new corporate identity is part of a big effort to increase innovation and technological progress. With the same principles and values, we will further increase the service to our customers and partners with an improved handling of the risks that we will be called upon to manage,” Zorbas concluded.

The brand launch event was attended and addressed by Mr Konstantinos Karamanlis, former Prime Minister, in his capacity as Chairman of the Board of Directors of SEKE SA; the Minister of Development Mr Konstantinos Skrekas; the Minister of Rural Development & Food, Mr Elfterios Avgenakis; and Mr Ioannis Hatzitheodosiou, President of the Athens Chamber of Commerce.

ICMIF has launched a new Brand and Marketing Forum for members. The topic for the first session on Tuesday 5 March will be Marketing mutuality. The format of the session will consist of case studies presented by brand and marketing experts from the global ICMIF network. These members have identified what it is about their mutual/cooperative difference that is valuable to their members and gone on to market this in different ways.

The ICMIF Brand and Marketing Forum is open to all brand, marketing, communications, mutuality and strategy professionals within the ICMIF network that are looking to be inspired, share and broaden their own knowledge of marketing mutuality while establishing a global peer network to learn and collaborate with.

Learn more about the ICMIF Brand and Marketing Forum here (including future dates for the forum) or contact Vicky Hughes, Vice-President Membership ICMIF, for more information and/or to register.