Re-think - Swiss Re/GEIS merger will work.

(From Reinsurance)

The uncertain season that is the British summer has arrived, bringing with it sunshades, umbrellas and doubtful glances at the sky. The only certain thing about this time of year tends to be that we will see some very uncertain weather.

Bearing that cheery thought in mind, this month's Rethink results were collected in June, at a time when the first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season was threatening to turn into the first hurricane.

The timing was quite good, because shortly after the polling closed, the news then came through that Swiss Re had completed its acquisition of GE Insurance Solutions (GEIS). This made our first question - whether the final merger of the two will work in the long term - quite appropriate. The verdict from you was quite clear here: a massive 82% of you said yes, while just 18% disagreed.

A similar amount of clarity surrounded our next question: whether the new London market initiative FELIX, which was announced by RI3K and Xchanging, would work, or whether it would just be another flash in the pan. An optimistic 19% said that FELIX would be a success., while 81% opted for the pan. Given the number of London market initiatives that have fallen by the wayside over the years, it is possible that this has bred a certain amount of scepticism about such announcements, which FELIX will have to overcome if it is to stand much of a chance.

Looking a little further afield, we next asked if companies knew enough about the stirring economic giant that is China to justify their expansion there. The results here were even more clear-cut: 88% gave us an outright 'no', while just 12% said 'yes'. Given the amount of optimism in corporate circles about the potential that China possesses, Reinsurance raised an eyebrow at this possible clash between what the troops on the ground think and the thoughts of those ...