Covid-19 has hit the economy especially hard in Spain and Portugal due to their reliance on tourism. In an interview with Commercial Risk Europe, HDI Global’s country manager Juan Aznar explains how this development has resulted in closer relationships between insurers and clients.

Spain expects a tough economic climate in the year ahead, after Covid-19 wreaked havoc on the country’s tourism sector. Few people expect the economy to recover until well into 2021, and much of that recovery will depend on what happens with the pandemic.

Juan Aznar, country manager for HDI Global in Spain and Portugal, explains in the December 2020 issue of Commercial Risk Europe: “It’s not a country of big corporations but of many SMEs. A large number of them work in the tourism sector, so it’s looking particularly tough at the moment. That’s not to say we don’t have our success stories because we do, but I’m not optimistic for the economy in the year ahead.”

And yet insurers are still managing to raise insurance rates. Mr Aznar says this shows how overdue these steps are and how tough times had become for commercial insurers. At the same time, he welcomes the opportunity to work more closely with clients.

“Instead of simply chasing the lowest price downwards in a race to the bottom, as has been happening for the last 15 years, we are all engaging in a much more detailed and professional manner. Risk managers are fully interrogating their programmes and assessing what they really need in terms of insurance,” he adds.

Source: Commercial Risk Europe

www.commercialriskonline.com

Please read the full interview in the PDF.