Transparent lobbying activities

In the interests of our stakeholders, we contribute our knowledge and expertise to the political decision-making process. In doing so, we place the emphasis on fairness and transparency.

Unlike the laws of nature, making regulations is a job for people, and is subject to different values and perspectives. In order to draw up new legislative texts, the government constantly draws on the knowledge, experience and assessments of those affected to allow it to reach balanced and appropriate decisions. This may take the form of hearings and consultations, as well as individual discussions.

In the interests of our clients, employees and shareholders, we participate in the political decision-making process. We focus on topic areas that affect our Group and our stakeholders, and in which we possess a level of expertise. With many Munich Re concerns, the corporate interest matches the general societal interest, for example in the areas of climate protection and data security, or with investments in infrastructure. In 2018, our main focus was on the following topics:

Digitalisation

Digitalisation will have an enormous impact on almost every aspect of our business. We support the digital agenda of the German government and the European Commission. Our focus lies on creating a level playing field in Europe that guarantees uniform framework conditions and legal certainty. At the same time, it should be flexible and agile enough to allow the development of innovative products and services and to benefit from the advantages of digitalisation.

Global Insurance Capital Standard (ICS)

The development and, in particular, the widespread implementation of a global capital standard for insurance companies poses a major challenge for companies and supervisory authorities alike. We take part in consultations on the development of the ICS and are involved in quantitative tests.

Sustainable finance

We are actively involved in the design of the Action Plan for Sustainable Finance presented by the EU Commission by taking part in consultations on legislative processes and supervisory authority surveys.

Climate change

We support the resolutions and measures adopted at the 21st UN Climate Conference (“Paris Climate Agreement”) in 2015. We include climate effects in our business processes at the risk assessment, business development and investment management levels. We also take part in joint public- and private-sector initiatives aimed at developing and marketing innovative insurance solutions for climate risks.

Regulation of systemic risks

Traditional insurance and reinsurance activities are not systemically important. Munich Re was not classed as a global systemically important insurer (G-SII). We nevertheless follow the discussions on further developing the method towards an activity-based approach and reply to relevant consultations.

The Public Affairs department is responsible for the lobbying of governments, national and supranational authorities, associations and other organisations by Munich Re (Group). We are also active in industry organisations, including the German Insurance Association (GDV), the Geneva Association, the European Insurance Chief Financial Officers (CFO) Forum, the Chief Risk Officers (CRO) Forum, the Reinsurance Advisory Board (RAB) of Insurance Europe, as well as the Pan European Insurance Forum (PEIF).

Munich Re attaches importance to ensuring its lobbying activities are transparent. We therefore provide details to the Transparency Register of the European Parliament and the European Commission on focal points, memberships and the cost of our lobbying activities.