Let’s talk about the future

Our ambition is to become the mutualist champion of customer support. We pride ourselves above all on our ability to be there for people and deliver on our promise. 

In 2023, our elected members and employees, both in France and abroad, helped us to fulfil this promise. They have supported our members through difficult times by showing up and doing what they can to speed up compensation procedures and respond as quickly as possible to their needs. Their efforts were particularly admirable during the second half of the year, which was marked by severe weather in the shape of Storms Ciarán and Domingos, as well as extreme rainfall causing devastating flooding in the Hauts-de-France region. It is the close relationship between our teams, from claims experts to sales consultants, and our network of elected members that sets Groupama’s response apart.

Our task now is to double down on honouring this collective commitment. After all, you are not born a champion; you have to become one! Through our everyday work and our ongoing resilience, we will continue to progress. We must make sure we work hard and remain committed at all times! And our end goal must always be a reassured and fully satisfied member. That is the goal we have set ourselves and it is one we will achieve, together.

Nevertheless, uncertainties remain. Although the climate trend is clear, with related costs in France having doubled every five years since the start of the 2010s, unexpected weather events occur every year. Expert opinion is divided on whether inflation will fall. And although stock markets are at record levels right now, how will things evolve over 2024? What we can be sure of is that property prices are falling, which is not necessarily good news for every member of the workforce.

And then there are other risks, such as those related to artificial intelligence, which can be difficult to manage and were placed at the top of a risk ranking in 2024 by the Davos World Economic Forum.

What about value for money? People spend money on insurance because they have to, not because they want to.

Its price is being forced up by a trifecta of regulatory, political and competitive pressures.  We must deliver value amid these price rises and justify our prices as households and businesses find that insurance is increasingly stretching their budget.

Another thing that we need to consider in 2024 is the difficult situation surrounding health insurance. Talks with the authorities are proving difficult. The Senate has set up a taskforce to assess the level of health insurance premiums. Expenses have already been transferred to insurers and mutuals.  It is clear that 2024 will be another difficult year in this regard.

Lastly, the insurability of our regions is more relevant than ever and is now being actively discussed with the authorities.  The government has set up a taskforce, led by our former Chairman Jean-Yves Dagès, to make recommendations and propose insurance solutions to local authorities on an ongoing basis. Which leads us to three fundamental problems. The first is that some risks are becoming certain. And if something is no longer uncertain, it is no longer insurable. The second is that we are facing phenomena of uncertain value: it is not easy to put a price on, and therefore to insure, the new AI threat. Lastly, even if a risk is uncertain and can be priced, the cost of insuring against it is becoming prohibitive for individuals and public authorities alike.

The government and insurers must arrive at common solutions, and we need to make our voice heard.

As an example, we rolled out the online claims process our members wanted, as well as our digital assistance experience. Assistance is about being there for our members when they need us most, and this digital experience means we are even more present. We also rolled out GESICA, an artificial intelligence tool that helps our salary savings teams respond faster and better to our members. So as you can see, we are backing up our many initiatives with concrete action!

To achieve our ambition of “Building the mutualist champion of customer support”, we must go even further, together. As an initial step at the end of last year, we collectively identified some priority areas. In 2024, we will investigate these areas more closely or start to implement some initiatives. Once we have quantified everything and established medium- and long-term objectives, we will be able to validate our roadmap and draw up our Group collective action plan: Building Together for 2030. 

We have laid down some fundamental principles for this project. The first is that the project is, above all, a state of mind. We are a service company. And the elected members and employees working every day to support our customers are who make this service company what it is. 

Our second principle is what sets us apart, our DNA, namely the local mutuals that grouped together to form regional mutuals and created the Group we know today. We should take this regional model as our starting point and use it to our advantage. Strong regional mutuals for a strong Group. Entities that are a part of the community, make decisions on a local basis, really know our members, invest in the regions and are full-service companies. Robust functions providing solutions, security, expertise and performance.

At Groupama, we are also our subsidiaries in France and abroad, which help us to be better, capture growth, diversify risks, become more efficient and offer innovative services with embedded insurance products. 

Every person, every Group company and every initiative is important and necessary to preserve our model and create the environment we need to achieve profitable growth.