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Swiss Re to hire 300 in Bengaluru services unit

To apply for a branch licence for life/non-life reinsurance
Last Updated 27 April 2015, 17:22 IST

Swiss Re Shared Services (India), a subsidiary of Zurich-based world’s second largest re-insurer Swiss Reinsurance Company, is planning to hire 300 employees in the next three years, a top executive said.

Talking to Deccan Herald, Alok Kumar, Managing Director, Swiss Re Shared Services (India), said: “India is one of Swiss Re’s key high growth markets and we are committed to the healthy and sustainable growth of India’s insurance market. In India, we have established Swiss Re Shared Services in Bengaluru since 2001 and opened a service company in Mumbai in 2002.”

He added, “Here in Bengaluru, we operate a global centre of excellence that offers a wide range of services to support Swiss Re’s business worldwide. We have close to 600 employees in our Bengaluru centre. This centre of excellence is expected to grow by another 50 per cent over the next three years supporting growing talent need for some of the most complex processes of our global business. We would continue to build our capabilities in actuarial, costing, risk management, data analytics, technology, technical accounting, and risk modelling, among others.”

He said Swiss Re welcomed the recent passing of the Insurance (Amendment) Bill, 2015. “Swiss Re intends to apply for a branch licence for life and non-life reinsurance once the regulations and requirements are available,” he said.
The Swiss Re Group saw a premium volume of $31.3 billion last year globally with an eight per cent growth. The company follows calendar year accounting.

On asked about the importance of the Indian market, Alok said, “India is among the five high growth markets for Swiss Re along with China, Indonesia, Mexico and Brazil. We will focus on a number of high growth markets in all regions and we expect to profitably grow our share of business from these markets to 20-25 per cent by 2015. In 2014, we already achieved this target with 21 per cent of premia earned and fee income from high growth markets.”

He said the company will make the necessary investments and increase resources to support the industry growth. According to him, the Indian insurance industry is poised for strong growth as premia will more than double to Rs 9.8 trillion by 2020 from Rs 4.3 trillion in 2014. Overall the insurance industry will grow at a real CAGR of 8.3 per cent (14.7 per cent in nominal terms) between 2014 and 2020, he said.

On Monday Swiss Re signed an MoU with BIMTECH, a private insurance institute in India, to collaborate as a technical partner in its Postgraduate Diploma in Management (Insurance Business Management) programme, the first-ever by a re-insurance company in India.
The MoU was signed by Alok Kumar, MD, and Amit Kalra, head (strategic initiatives), Swiss Re Shared Services (India) and H Chaturvedi, director, BIMTECH.

How re-insurance works

Re-insurers insure the risk of the insurance business. Insurance companies try to protect themselves from huge claims on account of earthquake, flooding, etc., by taking re-insurance. For example, Hurricane Katrina which hit the US resulted in $60 billion of losses in today’s dollar terms. Swiss Re supported major insurance companies to recover those losses. All insurance companies face the risk of getting bankrupt.They have to settle all the claims but since they have taken re-insurance, they manage the risks. Swiss Re charges premia from insurance companies.

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(Published 27 April 2015, 17:22 IST)

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