Research by QBE involving over 500 companies across the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain reveals that 66% of businesses are planning to increase their international footprint over the next five years. These businesses are looking beyond their traditional European markets to Asia (29%), South America (27%) and Africa (16%) for opportunities but are wary of the risks of operating in these less familiar territories.
The biggest risk European businesses believe they face when starting to operate in new markets is dealing with local regulations (44%). This is far more a concern than worries over differing cultures and business practices (35%), financial risks and instability (33%) or even political risks and instability (28%).
What is also clear from the survey is just how few companies consider using the expertise of their insurers to assist in their mitigation of these risks. While 24.3% of the companies surveyed use an international insurer with operations in the countries in which they operate, just 3.1% cited an insurer’s ability to ensure local tax and regulatory compliance as a reason for choosing their insurance carrier.
An equally surprising finding was that just 7.30% of respondents ranked as ‘first most important’ an insurer’s ability to handle claims locally in the countries in which they operate.
Babara Chandler, Head of QBE Multinational, commented: “There’s a clear challenge for the international insurance community to demonstrate just how we can help our customers when setting up operations or trading overseas. Ensuring local regulatory and fiscal compliance is an integral part of delivering multinational programmes for QBE customers, something we’re able to do because of our extensive 130-country network of representatives who have exactly this local knowledge and experience.”
