La Société Centrale de Réassurance (SCR): Assuring the Future of Reassurance with Training, Compliance and Effort

La Société Centrale de Réassurance (SCR), a subsidiary of the Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion (CDG), holds a leading position in the Moroccan reinsurance market.

Year 2018 figures (in millions)

• ROE = 12.26%
• Solvency ratio = 218.81%
• Written premium: 210.68 USD
• Dedicated Gross Investments: 1,149.19 USD
• Total Balance: 1,553.53 USD

It acts as an institutional investor by participating in keeping insurance premiums in-country, and mobilising savings in the national economy. The SCR’s profitability is ensured by placing the company at the service of the Moroccan market while simultaneously developing foreign business.

The SCR’s long experience and thorough understanding of international reinsurance markets enables it to shelter the Moroccan market from international turbulence regarding reinsurance conditions.

SCR is one of the oldest reinsurance companies in Africa and the Middle East. With three contact offices in Rwanda, Egypt and the Ivory Coast, SCR has contributed to the creation and operation of regional organisations such as the Arab General Insurance Union and the African Insurance Organisation.

The SCR has also worked towards the creation of regional companies, such as the Arab Reinsurance Company and the African Reinsurance Company, firstly at the studies stage, and then as a founding member and shareholder.

Some Key Ffigures from 2018

SCR has used its experience to assist many Arab and African countries that have created similar companies, welcoming their representatives to its informational and training missions.

Main strategic priorities:

• Reinsurance support for the Moroccan market
• General interest missions: central role in the management of the catastrophic-risk plan
• Serving Moroccan insurers and major companies in their international development
• Implementation of new products on behalf of Moroccan and African insurance companies (credit and surety, parametric insurance, insurance against political violence)
• Underwriting Zone: Africa, Middle East and certain Asian markets (India, China, South Korea, Pakistan et al)

SCR is the only Moroccan company with an AAA Rating from Fitch Ratings (local level). Since 2017, the AAA (Mar) grade that Fitch Ratings assigned to SCR reflects its solid institutional framework and the fact that it is adequately capitalised and has healthy governance and financial management.

This confirmation by Fitch of the Moroccan reinsurer’s solidity bolsters the strategy SCR has been pursuing in terms of transformation based on the “Strong II” plan, which aims at growing facultative reinsurance assignments in terms of profitability and revenue at national and international levels.

In addition to its Fitch rating, SCR has a B++ grade from AM Best, which confirms its underwriting policy and its financial and technical fundamentals.

“Strong II” Transformation Plan

The “Strong II” Transformation Plan is considered an essential tool for SCR’s medium- and long-term strategic development, delivered across several projects.

The plan was launched in 2016 and works to put in place a global projects portfolio, mobilising and bringing together all associates in service of SCR’s clients. This plan is organised along four developmental axes:

• Future growth and visibility
• Technical and risk-management expertise
• Operational excellence and client satisfaction
• Company culture and improvement of management style

Through this plan, the SCR will reinforce and consolidate its role in Reinsurance at local and regional levels, while accounting for new development challenges in the Moroccan and international markets.

Human Capital

The SCR invests in several projects to develop human capital, all of which target the increase and reinforcement of associate skills, as well as the strengthening of management style, team cohesion and company culture. In parallel, the SCR regularly promote internally and recruit externally high potentials for certain job openings. The goal is to offer growth opportunities to its associates and loyalty among its best team members while maintaining mixt promotion internally and externally.

Knowing that it must always invest, especially in human resource development, the SCR has continued to pursue its policy of professional development to maintain competence and achieve the expectations of clients and partners.

Most SCR associates receive professional development along profession-specific and risk-management themes, as well as other cross-functional and linguistic training.

The SCR is in the process of deploying one of the best risk management tools in the world. It is a highly calibrated SAS solution to manage well our appetite of risk. It should be noted that the SCR is the first and only reinsurance company with a high performance ERM tool in the region.

Dynamism

To meet the demands of the Insurance and Reinsurance Markets, the SCR launched its SCR Academy RE foundation, an initiative whose objective is to provide SCR’s technical expertise in various lines to its Moroccan and African partners, as well as to SCR employees.

Strong momentum has been gained in the foundation, with a programme covering different insurance lines (fire, engineering, aviation, maritime and liability) as well as pricing, actuarial and prevention.

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