Five questions for René Campos

By Yalixa Rivera Cruz / El Nuevo Día

After recent developments that have shaken the Puerto Rican economy, René Campos, president of Cooperativa de Seguros Múltiples, spoke to reporter Yalixa Rivera Cruz, regarding how the present situation has affected the insurance industry on the Island. At the same time, Campos revealed how in spite of these obstacles business has maintained a pattern of growth.

In what way has the insurance industry of Puerto Rico been affected as a result of the critical situation affecting the economy of the Island?

We keep tabs on properties. If houses are not selling, if cars are not selling, well then that will directly affect those insurance firms that dedicate themselves to these businesses.  Now, in January, reading El Nuevo Día we saw that new car sales were down 18%, this has to have a negative impact on sales to firms that are in the car business.  As for properties, if home sales are held up, which is something else we are seeing in the US and Puerto Rico, well that again is another negative angle for the [insurance] industry.  In the case of property and casualty, economic factors do have a direct impact on our operations.

What are Seguros Multiples’ strategies to adjust to these economic changes?

These strategies have been developed through the years. Diversifi-cation and dispersal are two of them.  Right now our group of com-panies has grown 2.3%. This is due to the fact that although the auto industry was affected, we have commercial lines and other kinds of business, as well as operations in both Florida and Puerto Rico. All this conglomeration of products and markets permit superior situations such as this one. If we were a firm exclusively dedicated to the auto industry, we probably would have had decreased business last year.

How do you perceive the opportunity to expand the [Puerto Rican] insurance business beyond the limits of Puerto Rico?

We have expanded outside of Puerto Rico, having operations in Central Florida and have been able to increase operations by $14 million, a very respectable volume.  Right now we are in expansion.  On June 7 we will inaugurate our second office in Orlando in the area known as Hunter’s Creek.  We have a branch office that is located north of Orlando. We expect this [expansion] to permit increased growth and better service to our customers. Our clientele is principally Hispanic, but [also] reflects the ethnic make-up of the cities where we are located. In Orlando 60% of our clients are Puerto Rican. The remaining 40% have other origins such as Cubans, Dominicans, Venezuelans, Colombians and Mainlanders. In Tampa’s case, where there are less Puerto Ricans, 40% are our own and 60% pertain to other nationalities. We are not discarding [the possibility] of expanding to other regions in the future and to other States of the U.S.

What is the biggest challenge that confronts the insurance industry on a global basis?

Global warming and [other] effects of nature. We cannot shield the sky with our bare hands. In 2004, three hurricanes passed through Orlando. It was hard. They were Hurricanes Charlie, James and Iván. Katrina also passed through Louisiana, the tsunami struck Indonesia, various storms in Europe, and this is a great challenge to insurance carriers as well as to the reinsurers that are the ones who must confront the situation. However, different methods of diversification, dispersal and risk management are used so as to share these risks with the greatest number of [insurance] entities to be able to confront them.  Up to now we have been successful in covering these events and responding to our insureds.

What do you consider to be the principal problem that has to be solved in order to resolve the actual [economic] situation that the Island is going through?

I believe that in order to extract ourselves from this quagmire we need the people of Puerto Rico to be more united. More sense of solidarity for all in order to establish a development plan that will represent everyone and that we all decidedly work this plan.  I believe that the insurance industry and the cooperative movement would be more than interested en collaborating with this process.

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