With a long-standing heritage in Italy and the country's insurance industry, Cattolica Assicurazioni still holds strong to its ecclesiastical roots
Cattolica Assicurazioni is the main sponsor of the Italian Rugby Federation and appears on the shirts of the national team (Credit: Cattolica Assicurazioni)
Italy is steeped in tradition, much of which is inseparable from the country’s dominant religion of the Catholic Church. For one company in particular, Cattolica Assicurazioni, the business of insurance has an intrinsic link to religious doctrine. Peter Littlejohns takes a dive into the company and what drives it to cover risk.
Cattolica Assicurazioni isn’t just difficult to pronounce for anybody that’s not an Italian native — it’s also been the main sponsor of the Italian Rugby Federation since July 2018.
At the start of this year, the federation praised the insurer’s involvement in promoting the sport of rugby as the Guinness Six Nations Championship competitors prepared to go into battle.
As one of Italy’s largest insurance groups, associating its name with one of the country’s most popular sports won’t do Cattolica Assicurazioni any harm in terms of exposure for its products either.
This is especially true considering the group took the opportunity to offer ticket holders supporting Italy against Scotland or England a discounted rate on its home, person and pet insurance bundle — marketing the promotion as an anniversary offer to mark the Italian’s Six Nations debut victory against the Scots in 2000.
But although promoting a new product using the patriotic spirit of fans is an interesting move, the history behind Cattolica Assicurazioni is just as fascinating.
Cattolica Assicurazioni — or ‘Catholic Insurance’
The group name Cattolica Assicurazioni translates to Catholic Insurance.
This is a clear sign of its roots, which unsurprisingly are emphatically tied to the Catholic Church.
A profile page on its website states: “The work done by the Group is inspired by the social doctrine of the Church and a heritage of values that come directly from its origin and that inspire it to this every day: Transparency, fairness, ethics.
“Cattolica puts the insurance protection of people, families and businesses first, with particular attention to the local area and the social and economic contexts in which they operate.”
The company’s original name was Societa Cattolica di Assicurazione, or Catholic Insurance Company, and its business was protecting farmers from losses caused by hail and fires.
This ambition was represented by its first logo, a shield featuring an angel and the Latin phase vitam auget securitas, which roughly translates to “life and increasing security”.
What does Cattolica Assicurazioni cover today?
Nowadays, Cattolica Assicurazioni provides a wide range of coverage, both personal and commercial, and sits seventh on a list of Italy’s largest insurance groups ranked by gross written premium.
The biggest chunk of its business is in motor insurance, but it hasn’t abandoned its ecclesiastical roots, providing insurance to churches and voluntary groups, such as charities, through its Religious and Non-Profit Organisations Business Unit.
Cattolica Assicurazioni hasn’t exited the business that started it all either, providing agricultural insurance to farmers, as well as risk-management innovations like its app that allows rice farmers to monitor their plantations.
Cattolica Assicurazioni’s approach to technological innovation
Cattolica Assicurazioni promoted a gradual approach to modernising its business using technology in a plan presented to investors in 2018, which specified its strategy until 2020.
Part of it involves implementing a new IT system for customer data, which it did in 2019 by working with IT consultancy Avanade.
Another feature of the plan is to embed data analytics into the insurance process, allowing the sales operation to take advantage of insights to market products better.
A second area where the group aims to use data is in the motor line, aiming to increase the take-up of its telematics policies by 50% for new business, harnessing the data collected to inform better underwriting.
Due to the group’s concentration in this specific sector, another pillar of its strategy is to increase the sale of its non-motor business, with an aim of bringing it to 51% of the entire book and diversifying its risk exposure.
Branding its plan “Tradition in Motion”, the group emphasises that transformation targets won’t change the core of its business or the catholic principles by which it exists, and that targets set for 2020 will be “realistic but ambitious in terms of growth, technical excellence and innovation”.