Managing Risk at Chubb

Disciplined risk management, intrinsic to our products and fundamental to our business, also informs Chubb’s approach to our own exposures and day-to-day business operations

Chubb’s enterprise risk management (ERM) framework is forward thinking, integrally linked to our key business objectives and designed to ensure sufficient financial strength over the long term to pay policyholder claims while simultaneously building and sustaining shareholder value. ERM provides a cohesive approach to the identification, assessment, management and mitigation of risk, including such risk controls as policies, guidelines and authorities.

Chubb’s global ERM framework is embraced by colleagues at all levels of the company, from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Board of Directors, down to each business unit and function. It is broadly multi-disciplinary and its objectives include:

1. External Risks: Identify, analyze, quantify and mitigate significant external risks that could materially hamper the financial condition of Chubb and/or the achievement of corporate business objectives.
2. Exposure Accumulations: Identify and quantify the accumulation of exposure to individual accounts/counterparties, industry, country and/or products, particularly those that materially extend across or correlate between business units or divisions and/or the balance sheet.
3. Risk Modeling: Develop and use various data-sets, analytical tools, metrics and processes (including catastrophe models, economic capital models and advanced analytics) that help division and corporate leaders make informed underwriting, portfolio management and risk management decisions within a consistent risk/reward framework.
4. Governance: Establish and coordinate risk guidelines that reflect the corporate appetite for risk, monitor exposure accumulations relative to established guidelines, and ensure effective internal risk management communication up to management and the Board, down to the various business units and legal entities, and across the firm.
5. Disclosure: Develop protocols and processes for risk-related disclosure internally as well as externally to rating agencies, regulators, shareholders and analysts.

Effective risk governance requires close and dynamic collaboration as well as focus on communication flow and risk identification. One of the key mechanisms by which ERM is put into practice at Chubb is through the role of executive and senior staff on the various ERM-related Boards and Committees. The associated collaboration and communication by senior executives ensures transparency and consistency in the application of ERM across Chubb enterprise-wide.

Chubb manages risk on both sides of its balance sheet by maintaining underwriting discipline, managing exposure accumulations and investing assets conservatively. The company’s balance sheet is a competitive advantage in a business where our financial strength and security equate to our ability to meet the expectations of regulators and rating agencies, as well as our fiduciary obligations to our policyholders and shareholders. We’re proud of the fact that Chubb’s core operating insurance companies are rated “AA” for financial strength by Standard & Poor’s and “A++” by A.M. Best.