General Insurance Article - Zurich responds to AIRMIC's request for global database

 In its response to AIRMIC's proposal to develop a database of international insurance requirements, Zurich applauded Airmic's and FERMA's focus on increasing the clarity of international insurance requirements. Zurich, which developed and launched its own internal Multinational Insurance Application (MIA) in 2006, provided suggestions on the key elements that the design of any industry standard would require, and cited several factors essential to its success, including broad industry acceptance of a common framework that offered genuine benefits beyond what is currently available in the market, a clear commitment to long-term maintenance, and robust funding and organizational design agreements.

 With economic activity increasingly global and risks increasingly inter-connected, international insurance programs have emerged as critical elements of effective and efficient risk management strategies for multinational firms, as reinforced by recent high-profile regulatory actions in Brazil, Argentina and Switzerland. However, as Zurich highlighted in its response to AIRMIC, properly structuring such programs is highly complex and they require an in-depth knowledge of local rules, regulations and tax regimes, as well as the processes and systems to apply that knowledge in a consistent manner that reflects the needs of customers across jurisdictions.