ACE pushes on in the Nordics–Bror Sandas, ACE

ACE has been operating in the Nordics under its current name since 1999 when it purchased the global property and casualty business of Cigna Corporation, formerly the Insurance Company of North America, or INA, for $3.45bn. It became a major player in the region in the mid- to late 2000s and crucially began to build its corporate side of the business in 2007/8. It has since expanded across the four largest Nordic markets—Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland. Iceland remains the only missing part of the jigsaw, but Mr Sandas said that ACE does some business with that market and sees opportunity for growth.hideWhile ACE traditionally focused on A&H and consumer lines products it has over the years developed a significant commercial risk business. It is currently making a concerted push into an increasing number of specialty lines products in the Nordic region. “We have been on a journey that continues. We are growing quite rapidly and want to continue growing, mainly by adding new products across different lines of business. In the four major Nordic countries we offer more or less all the traditional lines of corporate business. So we are pretty much a mirror image of what ACE does and offers in the rest of Europe, which we weren’t in the mid-2000s,” said Mr Sandas. “So while we continue to offer commodity products on the A&H side and the property casualty side we are in the midst of adding the specialty lines. This will take time, but working in an international environment like ACE it is pretty natural to develop in this way because we get good support from both other countries and the regional office,” he added. Two key specialty areas of focus for ACE in the Nordics are cyber and environmental impairment liability (EIL). He said there is currently a lack of solutions for these two risks in the Nordic market and believes that the real potential for premium growth lies in innovation and new solutions for such emerging risks. This will of course depend on insurers coming up with the goods. But they also need to educate risk managers on the extent of their exposures and the solutions on offer, said Mr Sandas. “We need to ask the brokers to help educate the market. If you look at the development of certain markets, take D&O for example, what were specialty products five to ten years ago are now a commodity purchase. But buyers had to be educated as to why they needed this cover and ensure they were ready to buy it. We will embark on a similar journey when it comes to both cyber and EIL, to take a couple of examples,” said Mr Sandas. He believes ACE, as an international insurer, has an advantage in this respect over smaller domestic rivals because it can more easily utilise knowledge from other markets to build specific products for the Nordic region. However, he noted that as ACE develops its Nordic business it is important to remember that what works in other countries around Europe, such as Benelux or France, may not necessarily translate to Scandinavian risks and markets. So careful planning is needed, he said. Another area of focus for ACE generally, with the Nordics no exception, is multinational insurance programmes. “This is something that we are bringing into the Nordic market, which puts us into a good position as it’s something that not a lot of competitors are able to offer,” said Mr Sandas. He added that multinational insurance solutions are crucial in the Nordic market, which is home to a high percentage of multinational companies. Therefore ACE has brought its Worldview platform, which allows risk managers and brokers to obtain real-time information on policy issuance and claims information in the Nordic region. “This is quite innovative, I would say, in the Nordic market and something we are concentrating on. This has been a major focus for us in the Nordics over the last year and a half,” said Mr Sandas. ACE has arranged multinational insurance forums in the Scandinavian capitals of Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen and Helsinki. These workshops have allowed risk managers and brokers to see what ACE offers in terms of multinational solutions and discuss how the risk transfer chain can work together to deliver better results. Mr Sandas believes that discussion with Nordic companies on issues such as multinational programmes and the use of captives is quite fruitful because the buyers are relatively sophisticated. “There is a certain sophistication, certainly in the way the bigger multinational companies approach insurance. For multinational cover there is a level of uncertainty about whether the cover is compliant, is it enough and the relationships between the master and local policy. Those discussions are pretty much the same as elsewhere in Europe. But we have four different Nordic legislations, four different currencies and four different languages. This can cause some difficulties, but it also brings positives because to be a truly Nordic company you are already a Nordic multinational. So communication over the borders and further beyond the region comes quite naturally to us,” said Mr Sandas. The insurer argues that the Nordic region and its insurance market is currently a good place to be for both companies and their risk transfer partners. “The Nordics have not been heavily impacted by the financial crisis. The financial outlook is fairly stable, the political climate is stable and there are a lot of changes going on in the market for the better I think,” said Mr Sandas. Buyers are benefiting from increased competition for their business as international and local insurers expand across the region, he added. “I think this competition is good. Of course in the short term it is good for buyers in terms of price, but longer-term it has to be backed up by an intelligent long-term strategy and this creates benefits for buyers. Crucially, competition brings innovation and that is good for the whole Nordic region, whereby ACE, among others, can bring in new products and solutions for multinationals. I would say that the Nordic market is vibrant and a good place to be,” argued Mr Sandas. One area that has improved for buyers as a result of this new competition is claims payment and pre claims scenario testing, he continued. “The market maybe used to focus too much on sales and not on what we were actually delivering which is claims service. But this has improved and is something that takes priority at ACE as an organisation. In the Nordics, we are building a world-class claims organisation that reflects the change of business that we are going through as we add new products. It is important that this area is serviced correctly,” Mr Sandas concluded.

ACE pushes on in the Nordics–Bror Sandas, ACE

Want to read this article?

Read Next

Global data breaches double in 2023 driven by extortion and third-party software attacks

Social inflation set to continue driving US liability rates: AM Best

Marsh McLennan achieves ‘Autism Confidence’ status

New management liability policy from digital MGA Aurora

Anra elects Fraire as new president

Global data breaches double in 2023 driven by extortion and third-party software attacks

Social inflation set to continue driving US liability rates: AM Best

Marsh McLennan achieves ‘Autism Confidence’ status

New management liability policy from digital MGA Aurora

Anra elects Fraire as new president

Want to read this article?

Read Next

Global data breaches double in 2023 driven by extortion and third-party software attacks

Social inflation set to continue driving US liability rates: AM Best

Marsh McLennan achieves ‘Autism Confidence’ status

New management liability policy from digital MGA Aurora

Anra elects Fraire as new president

Related Articles