Dr. Jochen Messemer, chairman of the management board, Ergo International

Within the Ergo Insurance Group, the operations of the International Division are not only the fastest growing but also the most profitable. However, despite its undoubted potential, Ergo International faces a number of challenges, mainly related to the global financial crisis. Here, Dr. Jochen Messemer, who took charge of the Group’s international operations at the beginning of this year, comments on the tougher trading environment that now prevails in the bancassurance sector, on the challenges of identifying appropriate joint venture partners in the life insurance markets of India and China, on the impact of negative exchange rate movements, particularly on Ergo’s flourishing business in the CEE region and on the restructuring of the Group’s operations in Italy, the only market where Ergo International wrote less business in 2008 than it did in 2007

The Ergo Insurance Group is probably best known as the primary insurance arm of the more famous Munich Re Group. But although Ergo only came into being as a group 12 years ago, many of its subsidiary companies, which include such venerable names as Victoria, Hamburg-Mannheimer, DAS and DKV, have been established in the German insurance market for 80 years and longer. Today, the significance of Ergo within the Munich Re group, not only as a source of premium income but also as a key element within Munich Re’s overall business and geographic risk diversification strategy, is firmly embodied within the Group’s financial figures.