The new service was launched the same day that CRE’s Editor Adrian Ladbury hosted a panel debate at the conference that involved Thomas Huerlimann, CEO of Zurich Global Corporate, Axel Theis, CEO of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, Rob Schimek, President and CEO of Chartis EMEA, Peter den Dekker, Risk Manager at Vimpelcom and FERMA board member and Peter Hacker, CEO and Global Head of CTM at JLT.

The discussion focused on innovation, or the perceived lack of, and how the market could and should work more effectively together to plug what many insurance managers believe to be the rising levels of un-insurability.

This is a hot topic and not surprisingly led to a lively debate that will be published in full in next week’s CRE newsletter.

Only last week German risk managers gathered in Frankfurt for a seminar on Cyber risk organised by Lloyd’s of London said that the existing coverage leaves a lot to be desired and bemoaned the development of standalone policies that are pushed at buyers rather than developed in partnership with buyers, preferably on a bespoke basis.

“The trend towards standalone policies in the German market is not ideal,” remarked one risk manager from a German wholesale group at the event that was reported in last week’s newsletter.

In recent weeks CRE has held a number of roundtable discussions with leading risk managers across Europe as part of our annual Risk Frontiers survey that is published in full in September and carried out with the support of XL and Willis.

These meetings have strongly underlined the fact that the 2011 floods that hit Thailand had enormous repercussions on the global risk transfer market and led to heated debates across Europe between insurers and reinsurers over contingent business interruption in particular.

What is fast becoming clear from our series of roundtables and discussions with leading brokers and insurers, such as the debate in Salzburg yesterday, is the fact that a traditional product led approach to this conundrum is not the answer.

The development of solutions that encompass as wide a range of intangible risks as possible, as noted by JLT, is what risk and insurance managers are really after and it seems that the brokers and insurers may finally be working out how to deliver.

One thing that is needed to make this work, however, is more transparency and partnership and this is definitely still a ‘work in progress’ as clearly demonstrated in yesterday’s debate and during the Risk Frontiers roundtables.

All parties agree that it has to happen but exactly how it happens seems to a tougher nut to crack.

This tricky question will be examined in depth during next week’s Malta International Risk & Insurance Congress (May 24 and 25 in Valetta) that is organised by Commercial Risk Europe in partnership with the Malta Financial Services Authority.

The event is sponsored by leading insurers, brokers and other service providers including Chartis, FM Global, Marsh, Aon and Dempsey Partners, the specialist loss adjusting and forensic firm that focuses on supply chain risk.

Top executives from these firms, other market leaders and local experts will join leading risk managers to seek solutions to the big questions of the day. We also have Peter Skinner MEP responsible for Solvency II as keynote speaker and will discuss exactly what the new rules mean for the European industrial insurance and captive market.

We have up to 150 confirmed delegates for this year’s event and there are still a few spaces available. Please contact Annabel White to book your seat. For those who cannot make it CRE will be reporting the event in full through immediate web news and an in-depth post event report available to all registered CRE readers.

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