Munich Re merges health, life units

The reinsurance units of Munich Health will be merged with Munich Re’s Life division, and the primary health insurance business will be transferred to ERGO International.

This reorganisation will also release cost synergies, and allow for a reduction in the size of the Board of Management.

Despite a few individual success stories, the original growth and revenue targets for the Munich Health field of business have not been realised overall. Market conditions and client needs in the growing health insurance market will continue to change significantly over the next few years. Munich Re is anticipating these trends with this restructuring – which was proposed by Joachim Wenning and the Board of Management, and has been approved by the Supervisory Board.

Primary insurers are today less likely to distinguish between solutions designed for health and life business, stated a press release. The increasing digitalisation of insurance processes, which results from the availability of large data volumes and new evaluation methods, is an important driver behind this trend. In addition, reinsurance is becoming increasingly important for capital management, and for those transactions the respective classes of business play a minor role.