This specialist department is split into two teams and focuses on three core functions: Investment Management, on the one hand, and Collateral Management and Corporate Finance, on the other.
Investment Management is responsible for the strategic management and analysis of the Hannover Re Group's investments with an eye to a balanced risk/return profile. When it comes to executing the investments in practice, we then turn to external asset managers. They are steered by means of our defined investment strategies, ranges and guidelines, which always incorporate appropriate asset/liability management as their foundation. In addition, internal and external reporting on investments is handled by our department.
Collateral Management acts as a service department for the Group, handling the provision and management of all forms of collateral for underwriting business. In so doing, collateral is managed in both "directions", i.e. for the expense of and in favour of Hannover Re. The spectrum ranges from letters of credit to blocked securities deposit accounts in many different countries. Collateral Management thus serves as a link between internal departments, foreign subsidiaries, ceding companies / primary insurers and brokers. In many instances reinsurance business can only be written in the first place by offering collateral solutions.
It is in the context of the Corporate Finance function that the department safeguards Hannover Re's external sources of financing. Extensive interactions are needed within the company with regard to rating models, the Internal Model as well as accounting and solvency regulations. The team members are then able to work together with banks and attorneys to build the optimal capital structure on a sustainable foundation. Their activities relate primarily to (subordinated) borrowings, with less relevance attached to equity capital structuring.
What skills do we have?
Most of the roughly 15 members of staff are highly specialised. The majority of them have:
- A degree in economics, commercial law or (business) mathematics, with the emphasis usually on a commercial/business background
- Practical know-how acquired by many years of employment experience in asset management, in trade finance or a bank