Our priorities are clear: to do our utmost to secure the wellbeing of our colleagues, clients and business partners by responding to the outbreak through appropriate precautions, while we continue to run our business and service our clients fully.
With the outbreak’s spread worldwide, we have kept the business running effectively through the commitment and dedication of our teams, using remote working or split team working to minimize exposure, where needed.
We still have restricted business travel and meetings to the most essential activities, therefore digital interaction and communication are to continue for the time being. In practice, however, many customers already deal with us day to day on a ‘virtual’ basis, and we will make every effort to ensure that customer contact is maintained fully through remote channels.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch with your usual AGCS contacts by telephone or email if you have any concerns or business needs. Thank you in advance for your support in this extraordinary situation.
Important topics
Our priorities remain clear: to do our utmost to secure the wellbeing of our colleagues, clients, and business partners by responding to the outbreak through appropriate precautions, while we continue to run our business and service our clients fully.
Our teams do everything in their power to limit disruption or delay of any kind to our services and to fully meet our obligations in underwriting, policy issue and processing as well as claims handling.
As we observe strong commitment from our clients, brokers and service partners to ensure business continuity in the current extraordinary situation we don’t expect any delay on the regular renewal process of insurance contracts in the coming weeks.
Should you have any questions regarding renewals, premium payment terms or underwriting implications of a temporary shutdown of premises, please contact your usual contact person at AGCS. We will evaluate each request on a case by case basis reflecting the individual circumstances of a company.
We realize that you as our business partner or policyholder may inquire about policy coverage in relation to any risks presented by COVID-19. We want to assure you that we will continue to work with you to address your specific questions and support you if appropriate to take all reasonable and necessary steps to mitigate or otherwise limit potential losses. To ensure a speedy claims settlement process we have established additional claims resources.
AGCS has a few insurance products that may or may not provide coverage for a range of exposures potentially arising out of infectious disease outbreaks. Coverages under particular policies can vary greatly and we will review every claim submitted to determine on a case by case basis whether coverage is available.
In general, any standard property and business interruption coverage must be triggered by physical loss or damage to property at an insured location and infectious disease is usually not a covered peril.
As you will appreciate, the content of the judgment is complex in nature and so we'll require some time to digest the points of law and understand how this will affect customers. We have already sent a holding letter to all affected customers in line with the FCA guidelines. Following this, a further letter will be issued to those customers detailing how the outcome of the judgment affects their claim.
Claims that had previously been repudiated have been reviewed and the decision on these cases remains unchanged.
FCA test case appeal – FAQs
We appreciate this is an extremely challenging time for business owners who may have a number of questions related to the FCA test case appeal. Information can be found in the FAQs below.
What does the FCA test case appeal outcome mean for Allianz Covid-related business interruption claims?
The vast majority of Allianz policies do not extend to include cover in respect of losses caused by Covid-19. The initial FCA test case and subsequent appeal to the Supreme Court case related to a small number of specialised policies only. A very small number of Allianz claims were potentially affected by this court action.
How has Allianz kept customers updated?
Allianz wrote to any customers whose claims were potentially affected by the court case. After the initial court case judgement was handed down in September 2020, Allianz wrote again to those customers to confirm if their case may be affected by the appeal.
What if my BI claim was already repudiated?
If we have already turned down your claim and you haven’t received a communication from us to say that your case may be affected by the appeal, our decision will remain unaltered and your claim will still not be covered. This is because the court case and subsequent appeal only involved a small number of policies. If we haven’t written to you to say that your case may be affected by the test case or appeal, it means that no policies similar to yours were being considered by the court.
What if my claim is affected by the appeal?
Only a small number of claims are potentially affected by the appeal. If your claim falls under this category, we would have written to you to explain that. Allianz was not one of the insurance companies involved in the court case, so we are currently carefully considering how the judgement will affect those policies. We’ll communicate our decision to customers who have made claims that are affected by the appeal as soon as possible.
Risk bulletins
Safety measures for businesses forced to temporarily close their premises
Safeguarding of construction sites during a cessation of works
Loss prevention measures for cargo storage and transportation
Temporary care & maintenance status in the mining industry – loss control measures
Property loss prevention measures for restarting businesses
Fighting the rise
in cyber criminals from the home office
Continuous
operation of power plants during disruptive times
Minimizing liability losses when restarting manufacturing after lockdown
Challenges for the shipping sector
SMEs/Mid-Corporate
Business owners preparing for changes in operations
Business owners planning for shutdown or reduced occupancy
Working from home safely
Employer Guidance
Information for fleet managers and automobile exposures
Information for restaurants used for pick-up and delivery
Information for property owners
Preparing to resume operations
Resuming operations for hospitality following Covid-19
Allianz closely monitors the situation globally, regionally and locally and constantly adjust measures accordingly. The Board of Management of Allianz SE has activated the Allianz Group Crisis Unit (GCU). The GCU’s responsibility is to take Covid-19 related strategic decisions at Group level.
Allianz is effectively combining safety and containment provisions with response measures, in order to keep employees safe as far as possible and ensure business continuity while we continue to run our business and service our clients fully.
With the outbreak’s spread worldwide, we have kept the business running effectively through the commitment and dedication of our teams, using remote working or split team working to minimize exposure, where needed.
In many of the locations where AGCS does business, local authorities have now started to release containment measures and continue to adjust as the situation evolves. Many businesses and their staff are returning to their premises and restarting operations in a gradual approach. AGCS, together with Allianz Group, has also defined a “Return to Office” strategy to prepare for a cautious return of our staff once the time is right considering the situation in the respective country and office location.
We still have restricted business travel and meetings to the most essential activities, therefore digital interaction and communication are to continue for the time being. In practice, however, many customers already deal with us day to day on a ‘virtual’ basis, and we will make every effort to ensure that customer contact is maintained fully through remote channels.
Further reading
About Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) is a leading global corporate insurance carrier and a key business unit of Allianz Group. We provide risk consultancy, Property-Casualty insurance solutions and alternative risk transfer for a wide spectrum of commercial, corporate and specialty risks across 10 dedicated lines of business.
Our customers are as diverse as business can be, ranging from Fortune Global 500 companies to small businesses, and private individuals. Among them are not only the world’s largest consumer brands, tech companies and the global aviation and shipping industry, but also satellite operators or Hollywood film productions. They all look to AGCS for smart answers to their largest and most complex risks in a dynamic, multinational business environment and trust us to deliver an outstanding claims experience.
Worldwide, AGCS operates with its own teams in 31 countries and through the Allianz Group network and partners in over 200 countries and territories, employing around 4,400 people. As one of the largest Property-Casualty units of Allianz Group, we are backed by strong and stable financial ratings. In 2020, AGCS generated a total of €9.3 billion gross premium globally.