Swiss Re further scales back its management presence in Israel
The reinsurance giant will not appoint a new local operations manager after the departure of its life and health chief, with responsibilities instead shifting to a senior client manager. The move follows staff reductions and Swiss Re’s decision to place much of its Israeli L&H business into run-off.
Swiss reinsurance giant Swiss Re is continuing to reduce its management and business presence in Israel. In an email update sent to its partners in the country, the company announced that Hillel Damelin, head of its life and health (L&H) insurance operations in Israel, will leave his position at the end of the year.
Damelin “has decided to step down from his position after more than 20 years at Swiss Re,” the company said, adding that he “will remain with the company until the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition.”
Unlike a conventional management change, Swiss Re will not appoint a new local executive to formally replace Damelin. Instead, his responsibilities will be taken over by Jonathan Zeboulon, currently a senior client manager at the company. Swiss Re said Zeboulon “will assume leadership of our life and health insurance operations in Israel,” but he will not officially hold the position of local operations manager.
Zeboulon has been with Swiss Re for 15 years and has held a range of actuarial and client management positions across several markets and countries, with a primary focus on Israel, according to the company.
The change is the latest step in Swiss Re’s gradual withdrawal from Israel’s life and health insurance market. The company has previously described Israel as an “underperforming market” and decided to place most of its health and disability contracts with local insurers into run-off, a process under which existing policies continue to be managed while new business is no longer accepted.
The withdrawal process also led Swiss Re to seek changes to agreements covering older, loss-making pharmaceutical insurance policies with Israeli insurers, primarily Phoenix. The company sought to change the terms of those agreements to give it greater flexibility in pricing without being dependent on regulatory approval.
The latest management change follows a reduction in Swiss Re’s Israeli workforce in recent months. At the time, the company said the cuts were part of a structural change under which management of the portfolios of several countries in the region would be handled directly from Switzerland.
The decision not to appoint a new local executive with the formal status of operations manager further reduces the management structure in Israel and points to a greater role for Swiss Re’s headquarters in overseeing the company’s remaining local activities.
Swiss Re emphasized to its Israeli partners that the changes will not affect its other lines of business. The email explicitly stated that “these changes will have no impact on our general insurance (P&C) activities in Israel.”
Augusto Díaz-Leante, head of market units in continental Europe at Swiss Re, thanked Damelin for his more than 20 years with the company and acknowledged his contribution to its operations in Israel.
