Source: Munich Re, 6 January 2020

Munich Re has hired industry veteran Serena Thio as CEO of Munich Re Malaysia. She joins the global reinsurer on 6 January 2020, and will report to Tobias Frenz, Munich Re’s Managing Director, Life & Health for Southeast Asia.

With over 28-years of experience in life insurance and reinsurance, Serena was most recently the Head of Life Technical & Customer Care at Zurich Insurance Malaysia Bhd, where she managed the overall technical and operational functions, as well as having oversight on select Zurich Takaful Malaysia Bhd activities. She is a Fellow of the UK Institute & Faculty of Actuaries, as well as a Fellow of the Actuarial Society of Malaysia.

Malaysian market as pillar of family takaful growth
Malaysia is the largest family takaful market in the world, embedded in a developed Islamic Financial System under Bank Negara Malaysia that provides a sustainable environment for growth in view of the low takaful penetration worldwide.

“Malaysia is an important market for Munich Re and we are committed to serving clients from here. With Serena joining the team, we are well placed to serve our Family Takaful clients, as she brings on board a wealth of experience and capabilities,” said Tobias Frenz, Munich Re’s Managing Director, Life & Health for South
East Asia.

Takaful in a digital age
Serena will head Munich Re’s Family Retakaful business, with its global retakaful hub based in Malaysia.
As the first foreign retakaful operation incepted 2008 in Malaysia,  Munich Re operates on a wakalah model and has in place a fully Shariah-compliant operation.
It is with this solid foundation that Munich Re is able to bring it’s global expertise to help takaful operators deal with the rise of disruptive technologies.

Tobias added: “Munich Re can address the specific needs of family takaful operators by leveraging on its worldwide group expertise in providing solutions that are in line with the rules set by Shariah scholars. This fosters strong partnerships and benefits the development of the global takaful industry. This capability allows us to help takaful operators differentiate themselves from conventional counterparts and adopt discretionary models that respond to customers’ needs.

We have also seen significant advancements by our conventional life insurance clients in the areas of underwriting and claims automation, data analytics and product innovation that have yet to be fully embraced by takaful operators. Serena will assist our takaful clients to close this gap.”