International seminar and Expo ABGR 2019 brought together a qualified public in São Paulo

A great opportunity to put risk management at the center of the debate. In all, the XII International Seminar of the Brazilian Risk Management Association (ABGR) brought to the roughly 4,000 professionals, that watched 12 lectures distributed along three conference rooms of the WTC, in São Paulo, themes connected to the risk and infrastructure areas. Another attraction was the business fair (Expo ABGR 2019), composed by 21 exhibitors, attracting a considerable amount of people, between risk managers, executives and brokers. The value of the information transmitted on the lectures and the qualified networking explain why this is the biggest event of its kind in Latin America

“This event displayed a very high level, on the panels as well as with the presence of great leaders of this market”, remarked the president of ABGR, Cristiane França Alves, at the closure of the seminar. The president of the entity’s Deliberative Council, Jorge Luzzi justified the importance of the seminar’s13th edition. “Risk management is the fundamental base to a better treatment of risk itself. Thus, it’s possible to mitigate the number of claims and provide to the market a smaller exposure to high impact situations”.

At the opening of the seminary, a strategic presence: the official of the Private Insurance Superintendency (Susep), Solange Vieira. She confirmed a thesis she held since she took office in the autarchy: there’s enormous space for the market’s growth. “We cannot build a hydroelectric power plant without insurance”, she exemplified. And brought an announcement, the creation of a specialized office on risk management. Themes like Surety, digital security, Pension’s reform, logistics and dam risks mobilized an expressive number of participants.

Optimist outlook to 2020

The main players present at the seminary and the Expo ABGR 2019 were unanimous in pointing to the year 2020, whose scenario will be conductive to economic growth, opening the field to investments. “We believe in the economic expansion, stimulating the creation of more jobs and consumer credit. The expectation is the best possible, including the resumption of big infrastructure building”, prognosed the Latin America CEO of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, Ângelo Colombo.

The Corporate Products executive director of Tokio Marine Seguradora, Felipe Smith, is also optimist about 2020. “Today, the market grows 15% more than the transportation and property segments, as well as with premiums volume. I understand that the businesses, relative to outgoing profits, are levering this growth”, he stated. As well as in 2019, Smith trusts in an even more favorable performance to corporate risk going to the next year.

“There is a trend for contracting new risks beginning in 2020, connected to the reinstating of the investments in infrastructure, an improvement in the economy, the privatizations process and a better regulatory environment”, remarked the Deputy CEO of AXA Brazil, Renato Rodrigues. According to him, the investments return will heat up the engineering risks market with technology application, that will change the way of measuring risks. “The use of drones and augmented reality, for instance, will make easier the risk assessment precision and the building monitoring”, he added. 

The general director of the risk solutions area of Lockton, Marcelo Elias, stated that the company is following the changes in the protection environment on the global market, of with Brazil is one of the main protagonists, exhibiting “potential growth for corporate insurance”. He warns, however, the necessity of expanding the insurance culture among the many consumption levels. Elias remembers that university and graduate courses of first world countries have on their curriculums the risk management subject.

Quality education is also defended by the CEO of AIG Brasil, Fábio Protasio Oliveira. “It’s necessary to know deeply the risk management aspects. We have to bring knowledge to the brokers and clients, mostly with regard to the experiences and products of countries more developed than Brazil”, he professes. The ABGR event, according to Oliveira, offers this opportunity by explaining and valuing the risk and the correct mitigation actions.

The positive outlook for the next year obviously includes the warranty insurance because of the expectations of new investments in infrastructure. “Stagnated for a few years, this is a sector that depends heavily on the evolution of the economy. But, in 2020, the emergence of big figure new projects and enterprises are noticeable”, bet the Emerson Bueno, of Fator. For the “Surety”, he foresees an expansion of about 2% in relation with the GDP.

The CEO of Zurich Seguros, Edson Franco, believes in a very favorable outlook for business next year. The virtuous scenario will favor the sales expansion on corporate insurance, in all its modalities. “There is indeed an optimist forecast for the resumption of big construction projects that will significantly raise demand and make the country grow”, trusts the Zurich CEO.

This is the same line of thought of the MDS Brasil CEO, Ariel Couto. “After a period of recession,  I hope that, next year, the Brazilian economy bring excellent opportunity to the sector, with the hiring of qualified people to the companies and a lower level of unemployment also in the infrastructure areas”, emphasizes Couto, that credit the Pensions, and after the Tax reforms, as factors that will boost the Brazilian growth.

Universe of new risks

Expecting a positive scenario for corporate insurance, the New Business director of Willis Towers Watson, Álvaro Trilho, explains how three distinct aspects can be brought together: risk operation, management and auditing. In the first line, operation, there’s the role of the risk manager that manages the event occurrence, with potential to materialize.  The second line references the risk management, and is an internal consultant takes this role, that helps the first line. “This consultant follows the determination of the company’s high management. He evaluates the risk appetite and which, in the corporation’s scope, should be directly administered or outsourced”, Trilho explains. And, finally, the auditing will analyze if the high management decisions are being followed on the risk day-to-day or on the internal consultancy.

One of the most commented risks, in the lectures as well as in the exposition grounds, are the cybernetic. “Currently, with the technological innovations, the organizations are taking measures against cyber risks. But, actually, we still don’t know the ample destruction power of cyber attacks”, stresses the executive director of Fundalarys, Javier Mirabal. According to him, the companies that use electronic channels to commercialize their products, using apps, store information and confidential data from the clients. “It’s indispensable to protect the intangible assets, that being the information, from frauds”, he warns.

“Every day we receive information about new risks, like cyber, that is very important, that is being carefully analyzed by the insurance market. We need to ask: which size is the impact that this risk can generate and irreversibly compromise the businesses of companies in Brazil and worldwide?”, asks the Corporate commercial director of Sompo Seguros, Eduardo David Garcia. The executive foresees cyber risk as a Market to be duly prospected by the insurance companies.

If, in the past, the companies’ preoccupation were traditional risks – fires, explosions, leakage and electric damage – now the focus is of another nature. The CEO of Aon Brasil, Marcelo Homburger, however, doesn’t rule out the importance of traditional events, but there are others very different and much more harmful. “Today, social networks can wipe out the reputation of a company or an executive overnight, and the consequences are unimaginable”, he considered. Homburger evaluates risk in a broad way and he highlights, as an example, the recent protests in Chile and the drone attacks in Saudi Arabia against oil fields. “We have to think about the problem holistically”, finalizes the Aon Brasil’s CEO.

Still in that context, the Corporate Risks director of Mitsui Sumitomo Seguros, Luis Nagamine, reiterates, as well said Emerson Bueno, Fator’s commercial director, the possibility of the warranty insurance catching upon the market because of big projects to be viabilized. He cites the Bidding Law (PL 1295/95). “With the text approved in Congress, companies will have judicial security with the transparence of public contracts”. Nagamine subscribes the thesis of the global Market. “It’s fundamental for us to be connected to the global chain. A claim filed in Japan or the United States serves as learning to the companies, that study ways to adequately serve their clients”.

The president of the International Transportation Insurance Club (Cist), Salvatore Lombardi, points out a differential that the market practices and that makes it competitive. “The protection offered to the clients by the insurers and reinsurers is not only about the information on the policy or in a mere discussion about fees, but on the essence of the service offered, such as risk management”. The technical director of Companies and Large Risks of Mapfre, Jonson Marques, follows the same line of tought: “What matters is the quality of the risk, aligning the company’s language with the clients’”.