The World of Show Business Is Insured in Luxembourg by Florent Ducat

THE WORLD OF SHOW BUSINESS IS INSURED IN LUXEMBOURG BY FLORENT DUCAT

Sometimes, the stakes are too high or things are simply I combined all these chances to create a global innovation: worth too much to take any chances, especially in full online underwriting and management tools, initially for film the entertainment business. For this reason, Olivier productions, and later on for global events and show producers. Héger founded the insurance company Circles Group Since then, we have expanded our offer to many other products in Luxembourg at the turn of the Millennium, to cover such as bloodstock, over-redemption, jewelry, fine art, ticketing, the risks of the film industry. Since then, the company D&O, and so on. Our underwriting tools ensure more than eighty percent of our total online market, up in only 10 clicks. has grown into a global giant and insured many movie shootings, concerts and worldwide events. BEAST On the other hand, what kind of innovations do you bring to the sat down with Olivier Héger to know more about the insurance, entertainment and Art markets? specificities of online insurance and Circles Group. Our in-depth knowledge of all these different sectors and our digital risk analysis tools allowed us to drastically reduce the Circles Group was founded more than 15 years ago. How have underwriting turn-around time. In addition to our online tools to you seen the market change over the years? edit and modify offers, to underwrite and to manage risks, we For the last 5 years, the insurance market and its players have created a document-editing tool as well as an API communicating become aware that the «Digital Revolution» was under way. between the major market players and us. Today, we have the feeling that a desperate race has started, In the ticketing market, we have launched the first insurance with some companies «overreacting» and trying not to miss without any exclusion and without human intervention, other the train this time, despite not even knowing or understanding than the one of the ticket buyer. In the art market, we have where this train will lead them. created an online inventory tool allowing the client to add and We went from paper, to e-mails, to websites, to corporate to insure automatically all the new works of art he acquired. showcases, to distribution networks, to social media, to big data, You insure online concerts, movies, Ticketing, Fine Art, etc. all to Artificial Intelligence, and most probably to quantum computers over the world while being based in Luxembourg. Is it challenging? tomorrow. How do you expect the traditional insurance market How does the long-distance relationship with your customers to digests all these revolutions without any injury? work? But even more, mainly as a consequence of these revolutions No, Luxembourg is an important hub in the Finance and and the new possibilities of disarrays that they generate, national Insurance world. Distance is not a challenge, as we work with a and supranational regulators have been willing to impose new selected network of local brokers who are close to their clients. rules and new constraints to control the market. All these new In addition, we have opened two offices in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro regulations rapidly force the market to digitize itself, but not all and São Paulo) to meet the needs of the Brazilian market and actors have the means to do so. one office in Hong Kong for Asian and Australian markets. We We are now in the process of experiencing a major disruption plan to open other subsidiaries worldwide. in two phases: a new market concentration in fewer but more How do you think Technology and innovation will change your powerful hands, risking to be surpassed by players emerging experience in the years to come? from the digital world, working today on tomorrow’s revolution. We might face the fusion of these two worlds or their collision. I think Insurance will become an omnipresent consumer good. It will systematically be offered during any purchase or any How did you come to this particular area of insurance? consumer action that could be insured. Just as any e-mail is sent I was lucky to be born (professionally) in the Internet age, when to you without your knowledge, insurance will be systematically insurance was dusty and misunderstood, and I had the chance and automatically suggested to you. I would call this “Push to start my career when compliance was easily digestible. Finally, Insurance”. I was fortunate to be able to develop innovative products, not decaying through unbridled competition.

BEAST MAGAZINE #11