In an interview with Alan Murray, Editor-in-Chief at Fortune Magazine, Oliver Bäte called for a level playing field for traditional corporations and startups. At the DLD, one of the leading digital conferences which took place in Munich in January 2016, Bäte said: “We work in a strongly regulated industry: Even if there are things we would like to do tomorrow morning – we are not allowed to. Many people in the room could do me a favor and write to our regulators saying: I would like to communicate via WhatsApp and Snapchat and via Email with Allianz.” Due to regulatory requirements, insurance companies are not allowed to use modern means of communications to the same extent as fintech startups, which provides a clear advantage to those new players in the digital area.
Just a few months ago, Allianz announced a partnership with Baidu, China's largest search engine. When asked on whether Allianz will be able to pioneer new projects faster in other markets Bäte said that some countries, especially China, are moving much faster than we do in the core of Europe and sometimes they are even moving faster than America. "China has been very clear in their 5 year plan to revolutionize insurance and you are seeing that. Together with our partners, Baidu and Hillhouse, we are trying to deliver a new model … and we have all the regulatory environmental factors ready to do that."
(Text: Andreas Klein)
Emails – not allowed yet
Hubert Burda, Publisher Dirk Ippen, Paul-Bernhard Kallen (CEO Hubert Burda Media) and Oliver Bäte having a chat on DLD 2016 (from left to right). In the background on the right hand side, you can see Lars Hinrichs, founder of Xing.
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