Overseas Insurance and Reinsurance Business | Message from the Business CEO

At Sompo Group, we continue to expand and enhance our Insurance and Reinsurance businesses outside Japan (Overseas Business.) Through our Overseas Business, we are firmly committed to achieving profitable growth in new and existing markets, nurturing talent internally, welcoming new team members, giving people exciting responsibilities and developing them as leaders to stay ahead in a dynamic industry landscape. It is the mission of our Overseas Business to ensure it contributes consistently to Group core operating income by using disciplined underwriting to achieve an adequate return on the risks it assumes.

Growth of our Overseas Business is driven further through geographical expansion and continuous improvement. It has subsidiaries, branches and representative offices in 28 countries and regions worldwide, including North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. Our Overseas Business strives to strengthen engagement with its clients and broker partners every day by using the in-depth knowledge and insights of its experts to respond to a rapidly changing risk environment in a fast and agile way, providing them with the products and coverages they need, underpinned by exceptional levels of service.

Outside Japan, our Overseas Business employs approximately 9,500 people who use their specialist insights and expertise to help simplify and resolve complex issues. In a fast-moving world, we pride ourselves on the ability to distil complicated risks, technical data and scenarios into straightforward information that is easy to understand. We constantly challenge ourselves by asking: “Is this the simplest, easiest and most efficient way to do this?” The result means we are able to provide the right solutions and outcomes for our clients, partners and our employees.

Our Japanese heritage, with its rich history, is incredibly important to us. It informs our outlook and is the basis upon which we have built our business philosophy. We seek long-term relationships, underpinned by the primary characteristics of trust, integrity and transparency. The depth and extent of our commitment to our clients and partners, further inspires their confidence in us and lays the foundations for long-term sustained success.

At the heart of our business is our most important asset - people. The ethos of our Overseas Business here is: train, retain and attract. Within our Overseas Business, opportunity and inclusion are crucial to ensuring we retain the people we attract and we provide a workplace where anyone from any background can belong and perform at their highest level. We strive to create an environment where differences are respected, valued and celebrated. Actively listening, exchanging ideas and being curious about the complex world in which we live helps our Overseas Business to understand better our clients, sets us up for long-term success and gives our people a workplace that inspires them to learn, contribute and grow.

We want our people to be proud to work for Sompo – and they are! Key to this is bringing our organization closer together. By focusing internally on who we are and how we function prepares us to meet more efficiently and effectively the needs of our employees and all our stakeholders. To achieve this our Overseas Business invests in, and values highly, internal communications and the power of our Sompo brand to connect our people and give them a sense of belonging and a shared purpose.

We continue to seek new opportunities to increase inclusiveness and to give our people a voice. Our Overseas Business recently introduced its inaugural CEO Advisory Council. Comprising 13 young and rising professionals representing varying roles and departments across the world, the Council includes regional leaders from North America, Europe and Asia Pacific and 10 members, nominated by its Executive Committee. With a goal of transparency and a focus on empowerment, the group is tasked with providing candid feedback and diverse perspectives on the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats from their unique vantage points, meeting monthly with the leadership team.

Our Overseas Business is also investing in technology, including artificial intelligence, and data to improve decision making and operational efficiency. As a people business, we are looking to support our teams with new tools we can use to undertake some of the more mundane, time-consuming work, so they can focus on enterprise and innovation, build deeper relationships with our clients and partners, and be more responsive through faster and more informed decision making.

Expand the offices opened in FY2023 by hiring additional underwriters and introducing new products in each region

The position of Sompo Group’s Overseas Business in the global marketplace remains strong and it is fully committed to continuing the momentum accomplished in 2023. Its growing global business is creating significant scale, it is investing heavily in expansive strategic initiatives and geographic diversification and has an improved product mix with lower overall volatility.

The leadership team understands the need to leverage the deep collective expertise of our Overseas Business, to connect across boundaries and beyond geographies, to deliver a collaborative and connected partnership that meets the unique aspirations and risk management needs of those it serves.

Sompo Group’s Overseas Business exceeded its goals for 2023 all while achieving a larger, more globally diverse book of business and further enhancing an already strong balance sheet. It has continued this positive momentum making a strong start to 2024 and is looking to keep generating profitable organic growth and expanding its contribution to the Group’s overall adjusted profit through the continued transformation of its business.