Insurance Companies! EDHEC Wants to Talk to You…

(June 21, 2013) — Business school EDHEC has issued a call to arms to those in the risk reporting sections of insurance companies to come together and assist with a European-wide survey.

The aim of the ambitious project is to provide substantive and qualitative evidence on risk reporting practices by insurers, taking into account the latest developments in regulation, accounting disclosures, and stakeholder reporting developments.

Best practices will be highlighted and framed by reference to both traditional compliance-based risk domains such as financial and operational risk, as well as softer, narrative disclosures related to strategy, conduct and management incentive, and performance-related areas.

It’s hoped the evidence will provide both public policy recommendations for enhancements in risk reporting, as well as identifying best reporting practices.

The survey focuses on the following key aspects of the internal risk reporting: governance, whether it is fit for purpose, the link to the insurer’s risk appetite framework, how risk reporting is used, and reporting capabilities.

Respondents are being invited to register their interest over the next four weeks with research assistant Tracey Zalk, and results are expected in late September/early October.

Preliminary results from the first content analysis stage of the research have already produced some intriguing differences between insurers in Europe and their cousins in the US and Asia Pacific.

For example, EU insurers scored highest when ranked on regulatory disclosures, but US and Asia Pacific insurers were better at shareholder disclosures.

Looking specifically at European insurers, ING performed the best when it came to regulatory disclosures, with a rating of almost 90 out of a possible 100, and Italy’s Generali performed the worst, with a rating of just over 50.

Germany’s Allianz showed the largest improvement from a score of 29 in 2006 to leaping to 87 in 2012.