Insurers must move fast and take the initiative in transforming the industry, Munich Re CEO Joachim Wenning says.

Data analytics and technology will drive disruption, but it is up to the sector to take advantage of opportunities, he told the Reinsurance Symposium in Baden-Baden last week.

“We won’t be able to capture this potential without transforming our industry and without extending our business models, for example, into risk prevention and risk mitigation,” he said. “And we have to move fast to drive the transformation of our industry ourselves, before others do.”

Dr Wenning, who became CEO in April, says the reinsurer is “determined to actively shape” the sector and be a forerunner in offering innovative, digital solutions to clients.

The theme of the symposium, hosted by Guy Carpenter for a ninth year, was “profiting from disruption”.

Guy Carpenter President International James Nash said: “To manage disruption effectively and to grasp the opportunities it creates, we must look to identify, evaluate and package risk in a more intelligent manner.”

Scor Global Property and Casualty Head of Strategy and Development Adrian Jones told delegates reinsurers must handle rising global risk aggregations, requiring large-scale expertise across business lines and geographies.

“For insurers and reinsurers, the most likely disrupter is either you yourself or a competitor you’ve always know about,” he said. “Insurers can disrupt themselves by reinventing the customer experience.”