Interview with furniture-in-chief – “Corona changed customer behaviour”, The insurer could not stand for it if “the state of the whole Swiss economy shuts down,” stressed furniture CEO Markus Hongler. In the case of his clients, he notes a Trend towards the breakdown of solidarity. Robert Mayer0 comments”Corona acts as an accelerant”: furniture CEO Markus Hongler, recorded at the headquarters of the insurance company in Zurich-Oerlikon.Photo: Andrea payer
Mr. Hongler, let me with a current operation enter: Helvetia and Raiffeisen will terminate their sales cooperation. Is
for the furniture, the way to a partnership with Raiffeisen?
Raiffeisen Switzerland has launched in the spring of 2019, your insurance cooperation new. The furniture was also requested. We regularly review opportunities for collaborations and partnerships. This is also the case here. A final decision has not yet fallen.
Suva recently reported about the fall in accident numbers due to the Lockdown. We can look forward to cuts in Premiums in the next year?
We adjust the premiums constantly to the bad development in previous years. Our auto premiums, we have already reduced in April by an average of 3 to 4 percent and sometimes up to 8 percent. In addition, we will reimburse in July, 10 percent of the car premium as profit sharing to our customers.
Suva is considering a “Corona-Bonus”, if necessary in consultation with the private insurers. What do you think?
Suva is not a private company, but a part of mono, a virtual monopoly provider. That is a different Ratio than the one we know in the deregulated market. In today’s competitive environment, everyone must decide for themselves how they will make, what goals he is aiming for and how he designed his premium.
do you Expect – apart from a temporary exclusive course covers – with permanent shifts in the event of Loss due to the pandemic?
Yes, we are different get bad pictures to see. The pandemic has on it but only an indirect influence. What is crucial is, rather, that Corona will change the behavior of the customers. Not in the sense of completely new Trends are already in place. Corona acts as a kind of accelerant.
How to get this to feel the furniture?
The car insurance is a good example: customers will expect from us that we will calculate your premiums according to the individual usage of the car. What belongs in Anglo-Saxon countries, long the Standard, is not arrived at us yet.
There is a lack of an appropriate offer.
The furniture offers this already. But less than 5 percent of our customers use it, especially young people, in which the higher premiums create an incentive.
What is the reason behind the lack of interest?
In Switzerland, it is usual for the customer to pay annual premiums and at any time to a high standard of performance to fall back. The abandon is hard.
Why is the Corona different?
During the Lockdown could not take people longer car. So you want to pay less premium. Such a claim does not stand up now in the room.
The Insured to pay only according to your personal user behaviour – is the new Dominant in the industry?
In any case, such claims are made more often than in the past. This has to do with the General lack of solidarity to. People are less willing to pay for the damage to the other. The question for us is how much we allow the breakdown of solidarity arises. Insurance is based on the principle of solidarity. This way, it falls inferior risks pay very high premiums.
As a pushing SMEs have perceived the customer, that insurer payments, despite the epidemic, the coverage denied with the justification that it was for Corona to a pandemic. Why not distinguish the furniture in the first place between epidemic and pandemic?
For us, the pandemic is not an issue, because we are only active in Switzerland. That global corporations, left the event of a Pandemic only, I can understand. Because in the case of a pandemic, the Risk occurs when the entire insured stock in the world at the same time – I can assure you. Therefore, it is at the core of the discussion that appeal to you, not the question of a pandemic or not.
what is the point?
It is a question that no one had the state-mandated, nationwide Lockdown on the Radar. This case is re-anchored in the epidemic of law – that the state may have to make a whole country-tight, with holdings without damage to close.
“The damage to the furniture is so big because of all the Insured are concerned.”
is The epidemic of cover but it was a long time ago.
As we have our epidemic of insurance, it was mainly about Hygiene. Companies that produce food or offering to run the risk that they are contaminated, for example by Salmonella. In the case, the authorities may order an operating closure. Last March, we were now suddenly in front of a country-wide Lockdown.
will Then have paid for, among other things, for the damage, a number of others rejected.
In our terms and conditions specifies that we pay when operating on regulatory arrangement needs to close. However, 5 percent of our portfolio does not have such coverage. The are Restaurants, food producers, Alpwirtschaften and dairies. The damage to the furniture is so big because of all the Insured are affected.
in Contrast, the reputational damage for the insurer because of the denied payments.
We don’t have to explain to the Public why such an event is insurable if the state of the whole Swiss economy shuts down. You have to solve otherwise.
How could such a solution look like?
The insurance Association is in talks with the Federal government as a financial contribution. To the discussion about a pool solution.
How do you imagine that?
Similar to elemental damage, for example due to large-scale Floods: they occur rarely, but in the case of damage violently. There are in Switzerland the natural hazard pool with 2 billion Swiss francs. On this the claims are settled under the participating insurance policies divided. The Pool, in turn, buys a whole the reinsurance to diversify the risks. To bring this all the way, is not entirely trivial and requires a little more time.
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