Winston Churchill said: “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning”. The pandemic crisis was at certain point the end but maybe it is the beginning… We only need to change the angle of view so we discover the new opportunities. During the 3rd Sharm Rendezvous & FAIR 27th General Conference 2021 held in Egypt from 19 to 22 September, “La Société Centrale de Réassurance SCR”, presented a speech entitled “New Insurance and Reinsurance Trends: Post Covid-19 Opportunities”. SCR has a glorious past in the reinsurance sector. Since its creation it played a major role in the Aviation Reinsurance Sector by managing and piloting the activities of the FAIR Aviation Pool. The success of the ship is by the strength of its captain, the captain of SCR the CEO Mr. Fassi Fihri Youssef moderated during the conference a panel on “Insurtech and digitalization driving the future of the insurance industry”. Consequently, and to reinforce information, an interview with Mr. Youssef was held to shed the light on the guidelines of SCR in light of Corona virus pandemic crisis.
* What about the participation in this conference in Sharm Rendezvous, is it different after Covid-19? Is it up to your expectations?
I think it’s a fantastic rendez-vous especially that it is the first time after almost 2 years or even more that we’re taking back the real contact with people, partners, brokers and all stakeholders. The pandemic crisis proves the importance of digitalization. With the unfortunate and sudden event of the COVID-19 pandemic, insurance and reinsurance companies have found themselves in the center of a storm. Hence, in a short period of time, many companies had to change their entire strategy and adapt to this unprecedented health crisis. Accordingly, we had to show more resilience to improve the process with less real contact particularly that our work is built on trustworthy relations in order to deliver the best services. Therefore, there could be an opportunity to build win-win relationships by working with our partners on existing platforms or maybe develop tailored new ones.
* Regarding insurance and reinsurance, how can you evaluate the state right now here in the region, in Egypt notably and globally?
After having a conversation with the financial minister who is elaborating a very smart strategy and after noticing all the projects that this country is doing, we hope that insurance and reinsurance companies can do a successful transformation toward a better future. I have to shed the light on a very important point that there is 55% on back economy and it would be great to participate in economy’s refreshment. I want to highlight Egypt since unfortunately other countries have political issues, not to mention other challenges like the cost of energy, the cost of premium which is very low regarding the quality of risk…
* The Market is hardening, isn’t it? What is your point of view?
Monte Carlo Rendezvous introduced some premises. But concerning our market, it’s obvious that we are not representing an important market share, some strategies need to be reinforced. Now, the reinsurance companies and the big players are most probably opportunists. What helps you persevere is your resilience and commitment. Thus, we need to think and rethink in a very agile way on how to turn this difficult context into an important opportunity for both sectors. Keep in mind that, in the past, challenges have always been a way of driving changes.
* We noticed lately extension of SCR outside Morocco, where did you spread your territory? And what about the risks?
On September we’ve launched a new contact office in South Africa so the number of our offices reaches five: Rwanda, Cairo, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire and Casablanca. Equally, we are looking forward for other continents, however, we are preparing carefully our business model to avoid risks.
We’ve launched during the quarantine a new strategy plan called “We Transform Tomorrow Together”, it started with simple philosophy that changed and grow to turn into a knitted strategy that portrayed our guidelines and our mission vision. Thus, we worked with more than 80 people during quarantine aiming to focus on our new business plan to take a step toward another side. So in 2020, we increased our revenue for more than 30%, and now we are searching new ways to increase it even more. We still have a long way to go, however, and it is only by acting together that we will achieve our fundamental goals and objectives.
* How were the numbers of SCR on the first half of 2021?
Our forecast indicates that our turnover will be around 2.6 billion Dirham. What is important to us is that the return on equity is stable, so the average is about 12% for 5 years. The prominence resides in assessing and evaluating our company for the standard Solvency II and we have an external European actuary. Our Solvency margins calculated by European Solvency II is about more than 176% so we are resilient!
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