Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Multinational Insights with AIG podcast brings together experts, both within and outside of AIG, to discuss the most pressing issues related to the complexities of multinational insurance placements around the world.
Multinational Insights with AIG - A View from the Top | with Elke Vagenende
===
Phil Rhodes: Welcome to the first edition of the Multinational Insights with AIG podcast. Today I am delighted to have Elke Vagenende, AIG's Global Head of Multinational as our guest. Elke has had a long and accomplished career in and around all aspects of multinational insurance. Including leadership roles on both the carrier and broker sides.
She's been with AIG just over two years overseeing all of our global multinational efforts. Elke, welcome to our first session.
Elke Vagenende: Thank you Phil. Thank you for having me.
Phil Rhodes: Perhaps we could begin with a little more about your background, how you ended up at AIG, and any other introductory comments.
Elke Vagenende: Yeah, sure. So, as you could probably hear from my accent, I'm not a native English speaker. I was actually born in Belgium. And I've been very lucky to have lived and worked in different countries around the world and in Europe. And now I'm based in London. And as you've alluded to it, I've been 25 years already in, in kind of risk management and insurance roles.
I actually started my career on the client side. I'm always working for large multinationals. I started in Bruss. On the claims side, and over the years I've sort of managed more insurance programs in different parts of the world. And actually what is also interesting I've managed different sectors, right?
I've done oil and gas, I've done communications, I've done industrial manufacturing. and that is interesting because the way that risk is viewed and how it's managed can be really different from company to. I then moved into underwriting. I became a financial lines underwriter, and later on, still on the carrier side I looked after all kind of different products for our clients globally.
And I actually had a short career as a broker as well for two years. So, but as you said that this has given me quite a broad perspective and it's now my absolute pleasure to run the multinational business here at aig.
Phil Rhodes: that is quite a diverse professional experience, Elke. Thank you. In your current role, you quite literally have a global view of the multinational insurance landscape. What kinds of changes have you seen develop over the last several years?
Elke Vagenende: that's a big question, Phil. I would sort of say if I sort of look back if you look. Really from a broad economic perspective. I've obviously witnessed different trends over the years and that has affected the insurance conditions. if you think of all the years of globalization where companies were expanding, supply chains were getting increasingly more complex.
and I would say the economy is just globalized, right? So, What I've witnessed then, and I guess this was the early two thousands for me, was the introduction of global programs, right? To sort of understand that you could do your insurance programs on a global basis rather than on a country by country basis.
And then I think it's really interesting over the last few years, really maybe three to five. I think we've seen, I wouldn't call it a reverse trend of globalization but it's definitely reshaping that trend, right? We've seen, disruption of supply chains. We've seen conflicts arise in certain parts of the world pandemic climate issues.
And to me, our clients will have to digest this and try and understand what does it. For them, what does it mean for their insurance program? and actually I think it, it's kind of made the role of the risk manager and our clients more significant. Right? I also would say that the conversations have changed, right?
So, if I think back of those earlier years we talked a lot about physical risks, right? Like how many buildings, how many offices do you have in which locations? whilst That's still of course, important. The conversation has changed a lot more around intangible topics, right? Like, economic stability, disruption even esg, right?
So, so I think a lot has changed really. And our conversations have evolved with our clients. I would.
Phil Rhodes: Interesting. With all of the changes that have taken place as you enumerated, what do you consider to be the most significant challenges and opportunities facing our multinational clients in today's world?
Elke Vagenende: from a challenge perspective, I would say for risk managers and our clients, it's increasingly more important to be identify all the trends, what's going on, right? I think you have to be aware of the landscape you, your company operates in. Stay on top of some of the regulatory and compliance perspectives that, that may bring in the different countries around the world and constantly ask yourself the question, do you have the right cover in?
place and can I actually execute that cover in the different jurisdictions, right. That operate. So I think that's a challenge, but it's also an opportunity as you say. Right. those clients that have a well structured global program, a multinational program you see that, the benefits that brings is they have more ownership, more control over those program.
So they can easier understand what is going on in their company worldwide. It can create consistency in your operations, right? You understand what, what cover you provide on a worldwide basis and that there are no gaps, because that's something that a lot of our clients worry about.
We'll discover actually work in all these local territories we're operating and even more importantly will my claims be paid there, right? so for me that's where the opportunity really is and we see some of our sort of the clients that really grasp this opportunity, even go a step further and use some of the data that's available.
to create a better risk management and create, make better risk management decisions. So I think that's a huge opportunity for all risk managers out there to really take control of their programs and drive this. the other thing that jumps to mind is the use of captives, right?
So we're seeing that globally increase as the world becomes more. and drive captive as a tool for risk management.
Phil Rhodes: You referenced the benefits of different multinational structures for different clients. How do you go about determining which is the best structure for our multinational clients?
Elke Vagenende: Well, I think you have to start with your risk philosophy, right? And I mentioned earlier in my career I've kind of worked for different companies that actually had a different take on this, right? So some companies have a very centralized view on risk, and there's a controlled master program.
It is perfect for them. So what do I mean by that? I mean that you basically have one master policy in place and then you have in various locations around the world. Local policies and the local policies are a part of the program. So what you achieve with that is you have a globally consistent program with the same wording, the same conditions, but at the same time, you also have local policies that satisfy that local regulatory requirement that there is.
So the two work together as one global program. So that's kind of the most synced, the most integrated choice. but for. Of our clients that doesn't work and they may have variations of that. So it's perfectly possible to also create standalone policies as we call them for certain jurisdictions, right?
They may do that because that business may operate independently from other parts of their business. Or there may be other reasons for that, right? So it, the first question you have to ask is how is your company set up and how centralized or decentralized is your company? And then really it's working with your carrier, with your brokers together on designing the structure that best fits your needs.
Let me tell you, there is a degree of flexibility in that there's various formats that can be used, but for most global clients, a kind of controlled master program, it is the preferred choice because they like to have that level of control that we just talked about and some of those benefits about, having consistent coverage and having that co.
approach across all their countries, but I would really recommend that this is a conversation it's not just one size fits all.
Phil Rhodes: One of the interesting paradoxes that has developed over the last couple of years, at least to perhaps longer. That it, it seems that while it has become easier for our entities to grow their international footprints due to technology, mergers and acquisitions, some other factors, some of which you've already touched upon, it's also become increasingly more challenging to operate in many jurisdictions.
From a regulatory standpoint, how do you feel this has changed our client's needs from an insurance per.
Elke Vagenende: Yeah that, that's right, Phil. And I would say there's probably two different aspects here. One is the coverage itself. So if you, for instance, just think about the cyber risk you maybe operating and you think, okay, I've only got a physical presence in maybe three or four countries. But you may be selling your products worldwide.
So from a cyber perspective, your risk may actually be more global than you, you think. how do you cover that risk? how do you kind of pin that risk down, even if it's possible from a geographical perspective and what kind of regulations are you subject to in the different parts of the world?
I think that's an example of. This globalization has made it more challenging and difficult. That's where having that good advisory function, working together with your insurance partners is critical in my opinion. And then on the other side apart from the actual coverage, there is also the operational side of the process of buying insurance.
If you think about, Paying premium, paying taxes locally. There are so many countries around the world where there are compulsory requirements that may differ from the country that you are used to operating. Right? There may be regulatory state compulsory insurance requirements. So again, it's tricky as one individual or as a small group within the insurance.
To really keep track of all this and partnering an insurance company that understands that is vital. And just to give you an id, we have more than 400 people that look at this stay in day out, right? And that help our clients manage these risks.
Phil Rhodes: We've talked about a number of different factors that are affecting multinational insurance placements and there are, I'm sure many more that we could spend some time discussing.
But I'm very interested in if we, the listeners of our podcast, if you could ensure they, that they are brokers and clients keep one message or theme in mind, one takeaway from your point of view. What would that be? Whether that's operational industry trends, underwriting considerations, or something else.
Elke Vagenende: Well, I would say from my earlier years as a risk manager the thing that I worried about, what would keep up. At night was really that the insurance covers we had in place would not work would not do what they, what I thought they would do in certain jurisdictions, right?
So, so we would have issues on the claims payment. so I think you have to keep that in mind that the reason why we are doing all of this is to really make sure that at the end of the day the product works. Right? That is the point. So what I would encourage everyone to do, Is to really engage early in the process with your multinational teams.
This is not something that you can consider after you've found risk. This is something that really needs to be embedded within your risk management philosophy, asking yourself the questions where am I operating? What covers do I need and what do I want from these covers? and so it's quite simple actually, Phil, my advice would, Engage early and have that dialogue with your carriers because I think there's nothing worse than if you are getting to that claim scenario and the cover isn't working as you, you intended it to do.
Right? That's not something that, that anyone wants. so prepare yourself, well engage early and don't be put off by the complexity. Many people. Comment to me and say, oh, Elke, what you do is so complex, right? Complexity doesn't have to mean that you can just ignore it or there is no solution.
I mean, the world is just complex, but the whole point of a multinational program is that it helps you navigate that complexity.
Phil Rhodes: This Has been great, Elke.. Thank you for spending some time with us for the first multinational insights with AIG podcast. We hope this has been insightful for our listeners and encourage you to submit any follow-up questions, comments, or suggestions for future sessions to multinational insights@aig.com.
Please join us for our next podcast later this quarter, and thank you for listening.
/