Read Full Magazine Here. Active Capital Reinsurance, Ltd. (Active Re) was founded by its Executive Chairman Juan Antonio Niño in Turks & Caicos in 2007, and redomiciled to Barbados in 2013. Now, Active Re has offices in the US, Panama, and Spain.
Active Capital Reinsurance, Ltd., (Active Re) is a reinsurance company with a General Insurance and Reinsurance License granted by the Financial Services Commission of Barbados (FSC).
In August 2023, AM Best has upgraded the Financial Strength Rating to A (Excellent) from A- (Excellent) of Barbados-based Active Capital Reinsurance (Active Re).
The outlook of this Credit Rating has been revised to stable from positive.
The company has a presence in Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and Asia Pacific, and focuses its underwriting efforts on short-term non-catastrophe risks.
The company continues to adapt to the current economic environment by innovating its internal processes resulting in better decision-making, says AM Best.
Such gigantic success goes back to its visionary and charismatic leader Ramón Martínez Carrera, Chief Executive Officer and Director at Active Capital Reinsurance.
More than half of the career of Ramón Martínez Carrera was dedicated to economic & mathematical modeling, financial analysis, insurance & reinsurance and management of insurance and financial institutions.
Ramón Martínez Carrera, Chief Executive Officer and Director at Active Capital Reinsurance sat down with BUSINESS LIFE reporter and explained how Active Re has evolved from a local company into a multinational company boasting a continuously expanding continuously expanding geographical footprint and leading operations. The success of Active Re, amidst the current economic crisis and wars in the Middle East, is phenomenal.
BL: When was Active Re founded, Ramón Martínez Carrera?
Ramón Martínez Carrera: Active Re was founded in 2007 and this year we will celebrate our 70th anniversary. Our headquarters are in Barbados, a decision influenced by our Latin American roots. Our founder and Executive Chairman, Juan Antonio Niño, was a prominent banker in the region which is why we initially focused our business there. Barbados is among the top five domiciles for captive insurance and reinsurance companies, and it is an attractive place for professional reinsurers like Active Re. Originally, we began by servicing Latin American clients, taking advantage of Barbados' numerous double taxation agreements in the region. It's a very accommodating domicile! Our core business involved covering affinity groups, group life, and credit life. Midway through our journey, we started writing more traditional lines, such as surety business and property & engineering, and in 2015, we began expanding our footprint beyond Latin America. We crossed the Atlantic and ventured into the Middle East, a memorable journey! In 2016, we were viewed as newcomers, and today, MENA business makes up one third of our portfolio. We've significantly grown our book of business in this region and plan to stay for a long time, aiming for further growth in an emerging, expanding market. We're comfortable with the writing discipline in the region and we support many ceding companies and work with all the distribution channels working here - both brokers and MGAs alike.
Over time, as our risk-taking footprint has expanded, so has our team. When I joined Active Re, we had 10 employees, but now we have over 75 located in 16 different cities worldwide; and by the end of this year, we expect to have around 80 to 85. By 2025, we’ll probably be up to 100 professionals. Looking at my multinational colleagues, we range from Argentina to Serbia. We have colleagues in Mexico, Miami, Paris, Beirut, Bahrain, and London. We're not just multinational, but also multicultural, with different nationalities and religions. That's how we view the markets in which we work. So, we've not only grown and expanded, but we’ve also incorporated other cultures into our company. This merging of cultures has become invaluable as we build on our understanding of our clientele and their needs and interests. It's globalization! We're capitalizing on this progress and look forward to increasing our operations, business, and success. We're now doing business in 137 countries worldwide and continually moving eastwards. We're also expanding into Asia.
BL: Which countries in Asia?
Ramón Martínez Carrera: We're focusing on China, South Korea, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Sometimes when I look at the map of where we're doing business, I'm amazed to find our new markets. It's truly fascinating. I enjoy my job and being a mentor to the younger generation.
BL: How has AI impacted your operations, Ramón Martínez Carrera?
Ramón Martínez Carrera: We use AI daily. You wouldn't believe it, but one of my younger colleagues is an AI specialist. For us, digitalization has been a crucial driver of growth. We've more than doubled in the last two years and without digitalization, growth would have been impossible. You can't understand your business or improve underwriting discipline and things like reporting, which are so important. So, for us, digitalization is truly essential.
BL: Is AI a threat to human resources?
Ramón Martínez Carrera: It's not the first time a new idea or development has been seen as both a life enhancer and a threat at the same time. We face these challenges every day. So, yes, if not used correctly, like any other discipline or human achievement, you’ll see it used for negative reasons, and if you use it properly, control it, and regulate it, AI can be beneficial. There are other tools, knowledge tactics, and research results that have the same impact on our lives. In my opinion, it's just a matter of knowing what you need and doing what is needed by your clientele and society. So, yes, we're facing challenges, not only from catastrophic events and climate change, but also from all these kinds of things. I'm optimistic and I've always been optimistic, and I believe humanity will find a way to cope and steer the use of AI onto the right track.
BL: Do you cover cyber risk and wars?
Ramón Martínez Carrera: We don't yet cover standalone cyber risk because we still need to better understand the natural risk and how to cope with it; so we need more data. But yes, we're following it. And on the other side, as we're located in different cities, we need to protect ourselves against cyber attacks. We're investing a lot of resources in protecting our data and our clients' information. For us, cyber is still a field that needs to be studied. In some ways, it’s like AI. On one hand, you have the so-called operational risk and cyber has been recognized over the last five years as one of the top risks we face. Cybercrime is becoming big business and cyber risk is a focus of organizations and governments all over the world. So, yes, I believe that - particularly our industry – inherently accumulates more personal information than other industries and so we need to protect our clients' privacy. That's why we're investing in protecting our data, how we analyze it, how we distribute our reports, and how we link with our channels.
BL: What are your thoughts on natural hazards, especially considering the recent storm in the U.S.?
Ramón Martínez Carrera: As a reinsurer, we don't target catastrophe business. In effect, we're catastrophe averse and we like risks which have no catastrophe exposure. Thus, we don't write risks situated on beachfronts and we don't write in highly exposed regions like the Caribbean. Paradoxically, we can’t take advantage of this current hard market, and we are less subject to volatile earnings. We do not risk capital erosion. We much prefer to keep ourselves growing organically and yes, we know and understand that during the last two decades, there has been a substantial increase in the frequency and severity of catastrophe events which have impacted almost all regions. In Latin America, we face catastrophic events every year, like flooding (such as here in Dubai). We have hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, and Florida. Consequently, we understand these events really well and prefer to avoid high volatility business.
But there are two things that should be noted: the way the insurance industry can support and can increase the culture to cover the risk. We have the so-called gap between insured and non-insured population and risk and so we should try to reduce that gap altogether. Both public and private interests. And that's quite a job. But socially speaking, we need to support our industry. We need to support the highly exposed populations and interests if we want to live in a better world.
BL: We heard about the recent flood in the UAE. Were you involved in this flood because Dubai airport and airlines temporarily halted operations as the United Arab Emirates experienced its heaviest rainfall on record?
Ramón Martínez Carrera: No, we don't write aviation, we write property.
BL: Did you have any property claims?
Ramón Martínez Carrera: Our business is about paying property claims as soon as we can after having reviewed the circumstances and that is what we are here for. So, yes, it could be dependant on our cedants. Paying claims in areas which have historically been loss-benign ones, creates interest amongst our clients because they may feel they need to buy more insurance or buy it in a different way – so it always provides us with an opportunity. Anyway, business is not always a piece of cake. There are challenges in all industries and as affluence grows around the world, people and businesses will grow in tandem and consequently they’ll need insurance. We are here to support that growth and against that, we need to pay claims to support their recovery. This is our mission, our raison d’etre.
BL: What's in the pipeline for the rest of 2024 in your agenda?
Ramón Martínez Carrera: Well, we have a strategy that was approved in late 2023. So, up to 2026, we have different pillars. But in terms of what we are now doing in MENA, we're planning to increase the support and attract more cedants. Our shareholders plan to increase risk capital and, in that sense, we're planning not only attract more business here, but also expand in new lines, so we are introducing new products and new lines of business. This is what we are planning to do over the next few years, up to 2026. In terms of our presence, yes, we're thinking of establishing an entity at the DIFC. That's something that is in our plans over the next couple of years.
BL: How did you like the Dubai World Insurance Congress?
Ramón Martínez Carrera: I was amazed because I’ve been attending this congress since the very beginning (I couldn't make it last year), and for me, this year has been one of the largest gatherings, if not the largest. I use this opportunity to extend my congratulations to DIFC, the local market and I look forward to attending even more regional events over the coming years.
