The bosses of Allianz, Munich Re and Generali like him. Many other insurance managers are strangers to Jörg Asmussen, the general manager of the General Association of Insurers. But the former State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance will probably remain with them. At the next executive board meeting on February 1st, a contract extension will be on the agenda, GDV President Norbert Rollinger told the SZ. Rollinger’s main job is the head of the Wiesbaden R+V insurance company. “There is no doubt that Mr. Asmussen and I work very well together,” said Rollinger, responding to industry rumors that the relationship between the two is said to be strained.
The insurance companies have a problem. The industry’s public reputation has been poor for years, and there is always strong criticism from Berlin’s parties. The failure of the Riester pension has meant that insurers do not play a major role in the debate about private pension provision. Plans by the SPD and the Greens to ban or at least limit commission payments in life insurance are off the table, but will be revived. Both parties are also trying to enforce more regulation in other areas such as credit default insurance.
A main problem from the bosses’ point of view: their Berlin lobby association GDV operated rather quietly for decades. Led by lawyers who were highly competent and well-connected, but who were not politically conspicuous, the association did its work primarily in the background. A political heavyweight should change that. The insurance bosses searched intensively and found Asmussen. The former ministerial official with an SPD party record – he has since resigned – was considered Merkel’s crisis manager in the 2008 banking crisis. He later became a member of the ECB’s executive board.
The now 57-year-old economist has been GDV’s managing director since 2020. He has made sustainability a central point of the association’s agenda and has represented the industry in numerous discussions and public appearances. Asmussen almost completely replaced the top floor of the association and brought in a new team – including officials from outside the industry.
He caused great displeasure when the GDV did not extend the contract with managing director Peter Schwark in 2023 at his request. Schwark is considered an expert in life insurance and represented insurers in discussions with politicians and on television appearances. However, Asmussen and Schwark obviously didn’t get along well. Since then, the “universal genius Asmussen,” as one insurer scoffs, has also commented on these topics.
The GDV appoints a new managing director
Now Moritz Schumann, a 31-year-old actuary at Allianz, is supposed to fill the gap and succeed Schwark as an industry expert for private pension provision in political Berlin. The GDV executive committee also wants to discuss this on Thursday.
Asmussen’s current contract ends on March 31, 2025. The proposed extension comes as a surprise. Insurance managers report credibly that Asmussen expressed doubts about the job in a small circle.
He is quoted as saying that he is no longer interested and will not stay any longer. The relationship with Rollinger is difficult, and there are growing tensions between large and small insurers in the association. But there is no longer any talk of that. “If the executive board offers me a follow-up contract, I will happily accept it,” Asmussen told the SZ. “There is a lot to do. We are only halfway there in modernizing the association.” He sees it exactly the same way, added Rollinger.