Global ICBA trade credit insurance alliance members celebrate ten years

By ICBA staffICBA Chairman Emmanuel Portier & Michel Mollard EULER HERMES GROUP Board Member (click on the photo to see a slideshow of the evening)

Paris au Printemps! What better place to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the ICBA than by returning to the city where it all began. Taking time out from their annual general meeting & conference ICBA members hosted executives from leading insurance companies at the George V Hotel in an evening celebrating the growth and success of the ICBA, a unique group of individually owned and operated credit insurance brokerages.

In 1999 five independent credit insurance brokers came together to discuss the concept of how to better serve their global clients. Ten years later, in the Spring of 2010, the original founding members of the ICBA, Jean Busnot and Emmanuel Portier (France), Winnie Vogt (Germany), Luc Gillijns (Belgium), and Michael Raleigh (Ireland) were honoured and recognized by their fellow ICBA members as having created a unique and dynamic organization. The fact that the original four countries represented at that first meeting have since grown to an organization that includes 25 countries, on five continents, and the world’s largest team of independently owned, specialist trade credit insurance brokerages, is testimony to the original four’s vision.

Jérome Cazes COFACE GROUP CEO & Martine Stevens COFACE Key Accounts Director with Jean Charles Japy: ICBA France (click on the photo to see a slideshow of the evening)Addressing the assembled guests from the major insurance companies of Euler Hermes, Coface, Atradius, Chartis, Ace, Cesce, QBE, BNP, Ducroire and Eurofactor, the Chairman of ICBA, Emmanuel Portier described the ICBA as a team of entrepreneurs. "Like our clients, we are highly motivated in developing our companies in a sustainable way, improving all that we do. We are not a standard sales team, we add value, and educate clients and prospects as to the reality of the credit insurance market." Portier challenged the underwriters to think beyond the ICBA brokers' abilities as distributors of product, to view them as "contributors to the role underwriters play in the global economy."Esteban Palau: ICBA Spain with guests from ATRADIUS GROUP BOARD, Isidoro Unda, Tommie Sjodahl, Peter Ingenlath and Peter Schmidt (click on the photo to see a slideshow of the evening)

Over the last ten years ICBA brokers have worked diligently to provide solutions to multinational clients; combining local service with global coordination in trade, credit and political risk insurance. As Mr. Portier emphasized in Paris, ICBA brokers believe that success in an ever-changing environment is reached by working together, by "choosing the right strategy and making the right decisions for each of our clients. Adaptability and flexibility are our priority and our strength. We are a global team. We don’t change, we only progress."

(ICBA is the world’s largest team of independently-owned, specialist trade credit insurance brokerages. Partners combine local service with global coordination to provide trade credit and political risk insurance solutions for multinational companies.)