M.R. Greenberg • 26 September 2013
Risk Management Monitor: - "Greenberg: Insurers Should Step Up to the TRIA - with Caution" by Caroline McDonald

Risks for businesses are constantly changing, but they should be seen as opportunities and not shied away from. This was the message from Maurice R. “Hank” Greenberg last week.

Greenberg, chairman and CEO of C.V. Starr and CEO of AIG until 2005 spoke at a KPMG insurance industry conference in Midtown Manhattan.

“We are living and have been, in a changing world. Whether it’s terrorism, regulation, technology, for some they lead to opportunity and for others, to nothing,” he told insurers.

Looking back in time, he noted, a number of insurance companies with “household recognition” no longer exist because they resisted change. How does a company insure against cyberattack, for example? “With great difficulty, yet it has to be conquered,” he said.

Greenberg pointed out, “We’ve dealt with environmental, but there is a lot more coming down the pike. Fracking is a new risk, every day you read something new—whether it’s causing minor earthquakes or polluting water and so on. But we have to deal with these things. You can’t hold progress back because there’s a new risk and you don’t want to take it on." ...Click to read full article...