Reputational Risk Management in a Global Insurance Company

Claudia Meyer and Maurice LeBlanc

Whereas the previous chapters of this book dealt with reputational risk management in banks, this chapter discusses how reputational risk management was successfully implemented and lived in an international insurance company.

For both banks and insurance companies the most important value is the brand or franchise value and its good reputation. Without good reputation and trust, these companies cannot sell their products to clients; nor are they able to contract intermediaries that support the purchase of insurance or asset-management products; nor are they able to refinance themselves in the market under ideal conditions. When a direct or indirect reputational incident occurs in an insurance company or bank, a lot of effort and money need to be spent to manage the stakeholders’ expectations and to reduce the financial and non-financial impact of the event. As it is difficult to assess the future lost profits or influence on the share price from a reputational risk incident, the proactive management of stakeholders’ expectations is a key success factor by which companies should align their reputational risk-management strategy.

When dealing with indirect reputational risks