“As for Notre-Dame, it is the companies that will rebuild France”

Debt, government instability, lack of tax visibility, fears about customers’ purchasing power… While 2025 starts under the same auspices as 2024 for business leaders, Groupama, the 9th general insurer in France, is no exception to the rule: “it is a factor of concern, and prudence in our investments and in our way of preparing for the future”, explains Thierry Martel, at the head of the mutual insurer since 2011. As questions pile up on the budgetary path to take to restore public finances“We clearly see that our model is not efficient, because increasing public spending and compulsory contributions does not take us in the right direction, believes the leader (…) How can we reverse this trend? If we are a little provocative, we see that as with Notre-Dame, it is the companies which will rebuild France.

In this complex environment, “we are fortunate that insurance is, for a large part of the contracts, compulsory, and that this offers us a real factor of resilience”, adds Thierry Martel. With 17 billion euros in turnover and 510 million euros in net profit in 2023, the mutual group has also noted, like its peers, the impact of climate change on its activities. Particularly with an explosion in the cost of claims linked to extreme events, which will reach 143 billion euros between 2020 and 2050, according to France Assureurs. This is almost double the period 1989 – 2019.

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Insurance: the cost of natural disasters rose to $140 billion in 2024

“Climate change is going faster than we expected”

This paradigm shift requires in-depth reflection on the evolution of the insurance model, by better modeling these risks, while maintaining accessible prices for customers. This year again, insurance premiums are expected to increase between 4 and 6% in the automobile sector, according to Facts&Figures. And from 10 to 12% for home insurance, in application of the government’s decision to increase the contribution to the natural disaster regime, obligatory in these contracts.

If this inflation is not directly the fault of insurers“our problem is that climate change is happening faster than what we predicted in the models. We must therefore ask ourselves the question of the price we put in front of the risk. And above all, ask yourself if people have the means to pay the premiums that go towards them? All this while keeping in mind that the increase in costs is not only due to the frequency and intensity of climatic events, but also 60% to the increase in wealth on the ground. We must take this into account in our calculations..

Beyond the technological perfectibility and energy resources that ChatGPT requires, we must not hide the level of dependence in which we are putting ourselves on the Americans.

Mutual insurer and leading insurer of farmers, the group grew by purchasing GAN at the dawn of the 21st century. Enough to make him a player in the consolidation of the sector, particularly in mutual health insurance? “Yes,” confirms the captain of the leading individual health insurer in France, who intends to consolidate its positions in these professions. We have the particularity of being a decentralized group, which makes it possible to accommodate small mutual societies, through financial solidarity mechanisms. All while allowing them to maintain their governance and their corporate DNA. Abroad we proceed by purchasing traditional companies since this mutualist model is less widespread”.

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SURVEY: Will artificial intelligence shake up insurance?

AI between opportunities and risks

In this delicate balance of risk management and forecasting that insurers face, they approach the artificial intelligence revolution differently. An upheaval that brings its share of opportunities, making it possible to better model risks and provide solutions to customers. But it is also a challenge for global cybersecurity (disinformation, computer attacks). Even if it is not linked to a cyberattack, the giant outage at Microsoft last summer cost a whopping $1 billion. According to the latest report from another insurer Axa, risks linked to online security are now firmly in the top three of the sector’s major challenges.

However, Thierry Martel warns of the strategic risks of dependence on foreign technologies, linked to the emergence of AI. “Beyond the technological perfectibility and energy resources that ChatGPT requires, we must not hide the level of dependence in which we are putting ourselves on the Americans. They are the ones who have completely mastered the technology. And when we see that relations between the United States and Europe are not that easy, it is a trap into which we must not fall, if we want to preserve European sovereignty..