Cooperation with the Erste Group in eight countries
In 2008, the Vienna Insurance Group acquired all of the Erste Group’s insurance operations in Central and Eastern Europe and concluded a long-term mutual agreement. The sales and distribution agreement between the two groups gave the Vienna Insurance Group access to the Erste Group’s cross-border distribution network. Individual national distribution agreements have been concluded for Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. As part of a “preferred partnership”, both groups undertook to give preference to offering the other partner’s products through their distribution networks.
The goals set at the time of the s Versicherung Group acquisition were fully achieved in 2009. This new bank distribution channel has allowed Vienna Insurance Group to strongly expand its position as the leading insurance group in the life insurance sector as well, both in Austria and, in particular, the CEE region. The cooperation between Erste Bank and the Sparkasse Group has been highly successful in Austria in particular, including the non-life segment, and has created a noticeable upswing in sales activity, not least due to an expanded range of products.
All the companies of the s Versicherung Group that were acquired are among the growing life insurers on their markets, with the companies in Hungary and Romania being especially noteworthy for achieving double-digit growth in markets in a negative trend.
Following the model of mature markets such as Austria, the companies in the s Versicherung Group are fully focussed on realising the potential presented by the rising demand for insurance in Central and Eastern Europe. Full integration into the retail strategy of local banks, in combination with custom-tailored life and non-life products, are the factors leading to the success of the cooperation with the Erste Group.
Expansion of partnership with Daimler
In June 2009, the Vienna Insurance Group and Daimler Insurance Services GmbH entered into a cooperation agreement for increasing the level of cooperation for motor insurance intermediation and acquisition in Austria and Central and Eastern Europe. The cooperation agreement has a term of five years.
In Austria Donau Versicherung and Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Austria GmbH, a subsidiary of Daimler Financial Services AG, have a long-standing business relationship. As a Group company of the Vienna Insurance Group, Donau Versicherung is the preferred insurance partner in Austria for motor insurance policy sales via car dealerships.
The agreement includes eight other countries in Central and Eastern Europe where Group companies represent the Vienna Insurance Group in local insurance markets. Some of these are core markets of the Vienna Insurance Group, such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Poland.
Cooperative distribution with Scania
The Vienna Insurance Group continues to strengthen its cross-border distribution activities in Central and Eastern Europe. A long-term cooperation agreement for motor insurance intermediation and acquisition was signed in 2009 in order to increase the level of cooperation with Scania Financial Services. Cross-border service levels play a key role in the truck segment in particular.
The distribution agreement currently covers a total of eight countries. These include six of the Vienna Insurance Group’s core markets, namely Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Serbia and the Czech Republic, as well as Italy and Ukraine.
An insurance solution was custom-made for Scania, clearly defining products with innovative benefits and service-level agreements, such as quick and efficient claims processing. This created a framework for local agreements between the group companies of the two partners to take into account conditions that differ from country to country. In this way, Scania customers benefit from specialists in their own country while at the same time being included in the international service network of the companies in the Vienna Insurance Group.
