LCI-news

The Lebanese Credit Insurer s.a.l. unveils its new corporate identity with the release of its new logo and website.

The redesigned logo, simple yet bold, features the acronym LCI instead of the full name. It is coupled with an abstract and modern symbol of Mercury’s (God of Trade) two winged helmet, symbolizing protection.

The tagline, Receivables Ensured, at the bottom of the logo, reflects strongly the core nature of the business and portrays the advantages of working with LCI.

The overall look emphasises LCI’s strong presence and commitment to its clients.

The new corporate website www.lci.com.lb aligns with the new identity and portrays the values of the company as well as the products, services and solutions it offers. The website delivers a streamlined, user-friendly experience.

The new corporate identity of LCI has been developed by communication agency JWT Beirut.

“LCI’s rebranding represents our evolution and direction”, explains Karim Nasrallah, General Manager of LCI. “This change is a logical step under which we can continue to expand our products, services and locations during our next phase of growth and development. What won’t change is LCI’s strong focus on our clients’ needs and on providing them with the highest quality of service and protection.”

Tuesday, June 4, 2013
LCI, the first independent specialized Credit Insurance Company in Lebanon and the Middle East, celebrated its 12 year anniversary on June 4th 2013 in the presence of LCI chairman, Mr. Gerard van Brakel and Mr. Daniel Strausberg representing Atradius Participations Holding B.V., who were both present for the annual Board of Directors and Shareholders meeting.

Mr. Karim Nasrallah, LCI managing director, announced the reelection of Mr. Van Brakel. Mr. Nasrallah congratulated the team for its hard work throughout the year and spoke of more development for the next 3 years.

Mr. Van Brakel congratulated LCI’s team on its commitment and the results of the company for 2012.

LCI has managed to maintain their leading position in the region and provide companies the essential ability to protect their receivables and increase sales. LCI has also increased its reach by focusing on other products such as Credit Information and Debt Collection.

LCI is committed to support companies expanding their business and growing their sales within and from the MENA region by providing them with innovative trade receivables management solutions.

LCI attended the Prague Club Spring meeting 2013. LCI was represented by its Managing Director, Business Development Manager and Regional Business Development Manager. The meeting took place in Prague, Czech Republic on 27-29 May 2013 and was hosted by EGAP.

The meeting discussed many topics such as Prague Club/Berne Union business trends, Strategic topics, Reinsurance and developments across the region.

LCI presented its IT system to the members as an Integrated innovative IT solution to Credit Insurance.

LCI also revealed that it’s working on a new identity for LCI.

A representative of The Lebanese Credit Insurer s.a.l was sent to attend the Credit & Bond Reinsurance Seminar in Dublin, Ireland. The Seminar was held at both Atradius Re Offices and the Herbert Park Hotel from May 27th to May 20th 2013.

Day 1 of the Seminar covered a wide array of topics related to Credit Insurance and Risk including:

• Credit Insurance Commercial
• Bonding Commercial
• Risk Underwriting in Credit & Bond Insurance
• Underwriting & Pricing Credit Insurance
• Recoveries & Collections
• Regulations & ERM

Whereas Day 2 focused on Reinsurance and its subtopics:

• Renewal Information
• Reinsurance Claims Management
• Exposure Management
  Excess of Loss Pricing

The Aman Union 3rd technical training takes place in Beirut

Hosted by LCI from April 29st to May 1st 2013

The Aman Union 3rdtechnical training meeting, organized and hosted by LCI

(The Lebanese Credit Insurer) in coordination with the AMAN UNION, was held in Beirut

from Monday April 29 to Wednesday May 1st 2013.

The meeting took place at the training facilities of ACAL (Association of Insurance Companies in Lebanon) where speakers discussed key topics related to different aspects of the Trade Credit Insurance industry.

“The world is in turmoil and credit insurance has never been more in demand than in the past 4 years”, says Karim Nasrallah, General Manager of LCI.

Trade and political risks insurance is an indispensable tool to facilitate trade flows within and from the MENA region, hence the importance of the subjects being developed during the 3 days of training.

About LCI

The Lebanese Credit Insurer s.a.l. (LCI) is the first independent specialized Credit Insurance Company in Lebanon and the Middle East. It was established in 2001 as a joint venture between ATRADIUS (one of the largest credit insurer’s in the world), a group of local and regional insurance companies and private holding companies.

LCI is committed to support companies expanding their business and growing their sales within and from the MENA region and other core markets, by providing them with innovative trade receivables management and Trade Finance.

About Aman Union

Aman Union is a professional forum assembling Commercial & Non-commercial Risks Insurers & Reinsurers in Member Countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and of the Arab Investment & Export Credit Guarantee Corporation “Dhaman”.

Aman Union aims at promoting and developing the commercial and non-commercial risks insurance industry in Member Countries and strengthening the mutual relationships among members through a range of activities.

Members of the Berne Union – International Union of Credit & Investment Insurers – saw the value of credit and investment insured in 2012 grow by 2.4 per cent, reaching in excess of US$ 1.8 trillion. This matches the 2.4 per cent growth in exports for 2012 according to the United Nations Statistics Division. Collectively, Berne Union members insured more than 10 per cent of international trade in 2012.

Of the total business volume, about US$ 1.5 trillion represented short-term (ST) export credit insurance with credit terms up to one year, while medium and long-term (MLT) export credit insurance for periods in excess of one-year amounted to more than US$ 180 billion. New transactions covered in investment insurance (INV) reached a record US$ 94 billion. Claims paid in ST export credit insurance rose again in 2012, following a drop in 2011, largely due to higher insolvency rates in Europe. Claims paid in MLT export credit insurance stayed at the same, relatively high, but sustainable level experienced in 2011. The combined claims paid to exporters and investors in 2012 in all lines of business totalled US$ 4.7 billion.

Since the beginning of the global financial crisis in 2008, credit and investment insurers have paid in excess of US$ 20 billion to their clients to compensate them for losses suffered due to defaults by buyers or other obligors.

“The high level of trade and investment covered demonstrates the commitment of our members to support trade, and trade is key to sustained economic recovery and growth” said Johan Schrijver, President of the Berne Union. Peter Jones, Secretary General of the Berne Union also commented: “The risk environment is expected to remain volatile, but despite these challenges Berne Union members will continue to support their customers with ample insurance capacity.”

The 2012 results were announced at the Berne Union Spring meeting in New York from 22-24 April 2013 which were hosted by the Union’s North American private market members AIG, FCIA, HISCOX, SOVEREand ZURICH.

The Lebanese Credit Insurer (LCI) attended the Amman Union 3rd Annual Meeting, represented by Mr. Karim Nasrallah, General Manager of LCI and Mr. Michael McPhilimey, LCI’s Advisor to the Board. The meeting was held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from the 20th to the 22nd of November 2012. The meeting was organised and hosted by Aman Union and Exim Bank Malaysia.

Mr. Nasrallah was a member of the panel “How Do Recent Political and Economic Event Affect our Industry”. He also chaired the meeting’s afternoon session on the 21st Of November 2012 where presentations were given by Berne Union, ICISA, Atradius re and ICIEC about various topics related to the industry.

From” Aman Union Full Members”, the total amount of business insured in 2011 reached USD 17.4 Billion up 17.5% from 2012.

For more information, kindly contact the Business Development Department of LCI via the following email: info@lci.com.lb

Berne Union members support 10% of world exports

“The results from the first half of 2012 clearly show the commitment of our members to support global trade and investment in a volatile economic environment”, says Johan Schrijver, President of the Berne Union.

“There is strong demand from exporters to secure their international operations and employment says Peter Jones, Secretary-General. “Credit insurers are meeting this demand and ensuring continued international trade flows against a backdrop of a global economic slowdown.”

The Berne Union Annual General Meeting 2012 was hosted 9-11 October in Stockholm by EKN, the Swedish export credit agency.

In the first half of 2012, members of the Berne Union have indemnified US$ 2 billion to exporters, protecting them from losses suffered due to buyer defaults in all regions of the world.
For insurance of trade transactions with payment terms of typically 30to 90 days, members increased levels of support in the first half of 2012,maintaining a level matching the pre-crisis levels. Credit insurance capacity remains steady at just over US$ 900 billion at the end of the first half 2012,a level similar to pre-crisis.

In the field of insurance for export transactions on payment terms of up to 15 years, the volume of business supported reached an all-time high of US$589 billion at the end of June 2012, demonstrating sustained demand for risk mitigation products for longer term transactions.
For insurance of foreign direct investment, the new business insured reached US$47 billion in the first half of 2012, 10% ahead of the same period last year.

“Despite these positive results, members continue to express serious concerns about the ability of banks to fund trade and investment given the proposed regulatory changes and the on-going funding challenges that banks are facing”, says Johan Schrijver. “Any further deterioration in bank capacity for trade and export finance could have serious consequences for global trade and economic recovery.”

With the insurance capacity offered, Berne Union members are confiden tto support at least the same volumes of export trade and investment as last year. In 2011, they insured US$ 1.8 trillion of international trade and investments, or more than 10% of world exports.

50th Member

The African Trade Insurance Agency (ATI) was admitted as the 50 th member of the Berne Union.
ATI is a multilateral trade and investment insurance institution headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, and is owned by a number of African member countries, as well as public and private sector organizations, including two members of the Berne Union.

ATI is an important addition to the Berne Union membership as members continue to report an increased demand to support trade flows and infrastructure projects on the African continent.

Election of Officers

Johan Schrijver, Managing Director of ATRADIUS Dutch State Business(Netherlands), was re-elected as the President of the Berne Union. MarceloFranco, Executive Vice President of Medium and Long Term Business (StateGuarantees) of SBCE (Brazil) was elected as the incoming Vice President of theBerne Union. Ralph Lai, HKEC (Hong Kong) and Khemais El-Gazzah, ICIEC (SaudiArabia) were elected as the incoming Chair and Vice Chair of the Short TermCommittee. Ken Tinsley, US EXIMBANK (USA) and Hans-Joachim Pflocksch, EULERHERMES Kreditversicherungs-AG (Germany) were re-elected as Chair and Vice Chairof the Medium/Long Term Committee.

John Hegeman, AIG (USA) and Vinco David, ATRADIUS (the Netherlands) were elected as the incoming Chair and Vice Chair of the Investment Insurance Committee.

Note to editors:

About the Berne Union

The Berne Union (International Union of Credit & Investment Insurers) is the leading international association for the export credit and investment insurance industry. Itworks for cooperation and stability in cross-border trade by supporting the international acceptance of sound principles in export credits and foreign investments and by providing a forum for professional exchange among its members.

Members

The 49 members of the Berne Union covered over US$1.8 trillion worth of business in 2011, which is about 10% of the world’s total export trade. Members are both private companies, offering worldwide risk management solutions, and state backed export credit agencies,focusing upon the support of national exports and outward investments.

Interaction

Members benefit from the highest quality information exchange through several yearly meetings, seminars and workshops, and interactively online. Exchanges focus on technical aspects of international trade, as well as developing and promoting best practices.

Links

The Berne Union has well established links with other organizations that play important roles in world trade including the ICC, IMF, OECD, World Bank, WTO and regional development banks.
The Secretary General of the Berne Union is Mr Peter M Jones, and the Secretariat is based in London.

For more information: www.berneunion.org

“Credit Insurers support the real economy- Berne Union members support 10% of world exports.” Berne Union. Stockholm, October 2012. www.berneunion.org

The Lebanese Credit Insurer (LCI), represented by Mr. Karim Nasrallah, General Manager of LCI was invited to theHBOR’s 11th International Conference on Export Promotion. Mr. Michael McPhilimey, Advisor to the board of LCI also attended the conference. Anton Kovačev, President of HBOR’s Managing Board, Branimir Berković, HBOR Senior Executive Director and Ivanka Maričković‐Putrić, HBOR Senior Executive Director hosted this one-day conference at Falkensteiner Hotel & Spa ladera in Zadar, Croatia on Friday, 21st of September 2012. Radimir Čačić, First Deputy Prime Minister & Minister of the Economy was present as well as distinguished representatives from special financial institutions, ECAs and the Croatian Government.
Karim Nasrallah stated that “The Arab spring has definitely created a climate of uncertainty which has had a strong effect on risk appetite”.
“While banks have become very reluctant to finance the medium to small size enterprises we have seen an increase demand for alternative trade & export finance tools such as factoring” Says Mr. Nasrallah.

Michael McPhilimey answered the question “Have insurers from the region noted an increase in claims paid? In which sectors do you see most risks in the region?”  saying that “there’s an increase in delayed payments showing the buyers need for cash”. He added that the sector where he sees most risk in the region is in the retail industry.