Allianz acquiring renewal portfolio of Liberty Mutual business

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, part of Allianz Group, is acquiring the renewal portfolio of Liberty Mutual Insurance Co.’s U.S. product recall and special contingency business, effective Jan. 30, 2018, AGCS said in a statement Wednesday.

The Liberty Mutual business is written through Liberty International Underwriters U.S., the statement said.

Specialized product recall insurance is designed to help manage the costs of a recall such as testing, consultant and/or adviser expenses, advertising and implementing the recall, and repairing or replacing products, the statement said.

AGCS began offering product recall insurance in North America in 2016 from within its global liability line of business. It provides insurance and service solutions pertaining to product recall and contamination, terrorism and political violence, and hostile environments, the statement said.

The insurer also offers clients global crisis management assistance services through its partner company red24, a risk management support and response firm and part of iJET International Inc., headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, which also supported Liberty Mutual’s clients, the statement said.

According to a recent AGCS report titled Product Recall: Managing the Impact of the New Risk Landscape, the average cost of a significant incident, in this case product recall claims equal to or greater than €5 million ($6.21 million), is in excess of $12 million, and costs for larger events can exceed this total.

“Companies that choose to renew policies with Allianz will benefit not only from an overall smooth transition, including engagement of the same crisis management partners,” Christof Bentele, global head of crisis management for AGCS, said in the statement. “For Allianz, this opportunity helps further position us as a leading product recall carrier and supports our strategy of expanding our customer base in the U.S.”