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Peak Re’s protection measures regarding COVID-19

Peak Re ensures a seamless customer experience during the COVID-19 pandemic.

When the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded, Peak Re was already well prepared to ensure a smooth continuation of its customer service to over 560 clients around the world. Thanks to our thorough business continuity mechanism and advance office technology, Peak Re could immediately offer its employees the option to stay home and comply with the quarantine restrictions imposed by the government for people returning from overseas.

On 6 April, during the COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong, Peak Re moved offices. Despite the challenges of relocating in a time of social distancing, this was another excellent move for Peak Re. The new office is not only larger, providing more space to employees and allowing them to respect the current hygiene measures, but also has a performant air filtering system installed which guarantees a high air quality at all times.

Peak Re’s team quickly adapted to the new working conditions and found a productive modus operandi which assured that the company remained open to business throughout the Corona crisis without interruption.

Peak Re continued to deliver the same level of excellent client service as in the past. The market team led by Chris Kershaw replaced personal client visits by video conferences and a heightened out-reach to clients to assure that they would get the best possible support from Peak Re during these testing times. In preparing for the upcoming Indian treaty renewal, Peak Re also set up its first client webinar with Indian clients and shared with them the most critical insights gained from the preceding renewals at 01.01.2020.

Peak Re’s leadership team and its CEO, Franz Josef Hahn, expressed their admiration for the unwavering commitment of the employees to maintain an impeccable client service.

“I am very grateful to all our employees and partners. Through their invaluable support, they have assured that in these extraordinary times, we were able to run our business as usual,” said Franz. “Even during this hardship, Peak Re delivered a service which is next to unrivalled, and that fills us with tremendous pride.”

The impact of COVID-19 and the lock-down measures in many countries have revealed the importance of adequate risk protection for companies. Franz said: “In the face of new or unexpected risks and stronger risk correlation due to globalization, it is important for companies to develop a comprehensive risk mitigation plan with an integrated insurance policy to minimize losses.”

A vital aspect for Peak Re’s clients during the COVID-19 pandemic is the timely payment of claims, which has always been central to Peak Re’s strategy. The company continues to excel year after year in this discipline, offering world-class claims service to its clients around the world. Today, Peak Re’s settles more than 90% of its claims in less than five working days, which is an unmatched record. Also, during the extraordinary COVID-19 times, Peak Re is fully committed to maintaining this service level.

Here’s what Sophia Chiu, Peak Re’s head of business operations, has to say about its claims performance during COVID-19:

Peak Re is living up to its guiding principle to pay all legitimate claims promptly and efficiently also through the COVID-19 crisis

Claims management is at the core of Peak Re’s strategy, and the company continues to excel year after year, offering world-class claims service to its clients around the world. Today, Peak Re’s settles more than 90% of its claims in less than five working days, which is an unmatched record.

Also, in the COVID-19 crisis, Peak Re is committed to maintaining this service level.

With insurers and reinsurers, both facing a high level of natural and man-made disasters and an uncertain economic outlook due to COVID-19, claims management has become even more central to the relationship of reinsurer and cedant. Companies achieving excellence in claims management have a competitive advantage by providing better service to their client base and by increasing operational efficiency.

At Peak Re, head of business operations Sophia Chiu, with over 30 years of experience in the international insurance industry, and her team of four claims managers are responsible for managing an increasing volume of claims from all lines of business and from over 560 clients based in more than 70 countries.

Since Sophia joined Peak Re in 2014, she built up the claims management team. She also installed a claims management process that provides a high-quality service to cedants while supporting the company’s ambition in becoming the leading reinsurer in the Asia Pacific region.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in February 2020, half of the claims team is working from home on a rotating basis to protect the health of its members. As a consequence, communication and coordination efforts have increased and become more demanding. However, its service has remained unaffected. Even during COVID-19, it remains Peak Re’s priority to provide its cedants with a swift claims paying process that they can bank on. Peak Re’s efficient and tested claims approval process has remained unchanged during the crisis.

The procedure specifies step-by-step the nature of claims service, the speed of claims service and assigned responsibilities. Senior managers can easily access the well-documented records on Peak Re’s claims system and give the necessary approvals via email wherever they are.

Sophia said: “The relationship between reinsurer and cedant is largely influenced by the speed, accuracy and efficiency with which claims are settled. At Peak Re, we are very proud of our claims settlement track record. Even during the challenging times of COVID-19, we work hard to maintain our track record to pay almost all valid claims within five days.”

Concerning COVID-19, only very few claims have been filed as insurers are still in the process of assessing the impact of COVID-19 on their liabilities.

This might obviously change once losses become transparent.