Internationalisation – risk or opportunity?
The internationalisation of the economy is not as recent as the buzzword[1] “globalisation” would have us believe. In fact, it was internationalisation that paved the way for[2] the beginnings of the insurance industry back in the 14th century, as shipowners sought to protect the increasing value of their ships and cargoes[3]. A document from 1347 is believed to be the oldest marine[4] insurance contract.
经济的国际化并不像“全球化”这个流行词让我们笃信的那样是近期才冒出来的。事实上，正是国际化为14世纪保险业的开端铺平了道路，因为船主寻求对他们船只和货物所增长的价值进行保护。一份来自1347年的文件被认为是最古老的海运保险合同。
Even today, the complex nature of risks emanating from[5] international trade is one of the insurance industry’s most difficult challenges and one that affects all classes of business[6], as the following examples show:
时至今日，源自国际贸易的风险的复杂性是保险业最为困难的挑战之一，并且影响着所有类型的业务，正如下述例子所示：
1. More than 90 per cent of all world trade is transported by sea or other waterways. The largest container ships today, with cargoes of up to 13,000 containers, may be worth far in excess of[7] $1bn. However, even this concentration of values is small compared with that found at the world’s great container ports, such as Singapore or Hamburg, which act as depots[8] to goods worth tens of billions of dollars every day.
2. The outsourcing of production sites to low-wage countries does not just reduce costs. It can also reduce the quality of the goods produced. Defective[9] products can result in recall costs or even product liability costs[10]. Recent examples of recalls that spring to mind[11] include toys coated[12] with lead paint and toothpaste[13] contaminated[14] with the antifreeze[15] diethylene glycol.
3. Liability losses can reach extreme proportions[16] when pharmaceutical[17] products cause dangerous side-effects[18] in patients. National law in the country where the products are sold plays a key role in this connection. The US, in particular, has seen some extremely high awards for damages. For example, in November 2007 pharmaceutical giant Merck had to pay $4.85bn damages in the US alone following several thousand cases of heart attacks and strokes[19] caused by its Vioxx painkiller.
超过90%的世界贸易经由海洋或其它水路运输。现在最大的集装箱船——货载高达13000个集装箱——价值可能远超10亿美元。然而，即使对比世界性的大型货运港口，比如新加坡或汉堡——每天充当价值数十亿美元货物的仓库，这种集装箱船的价值集中度依然显得渺小。
将生产制造外包给低工资国家的行为不单只削减了开支。它还可以降低制成品的质量。残次品可以引致召回支出或甚至产品可靠性支出。突然想起最近的召回案例包括涂有铅漆的玩具和被防冻剂二乙二醇污染的牙膏。
当药品对患者造成危险的副作用时，责任损失可能达到极端程度。产品销售国的国家性法律在这个联系中至关重要。尤其在美国，就已有过极高的损害赔偿的案例。举个例子，2007年10月，制药巨头Merck在美国就因Vioxx止痛药所造成的数千例心脏病发作和中风，而不得不支付48.5亿美元的损害赔偿金。
These examples highlight the enormous extent of the insurance industry’s role in the global economy.
这些案例凸显了保险业在全球经济所发挥的巨大作用。
Insurance companies that cover such large risks need a secondary market where they can place them. Reinsurers[20] assume this function. Sharing the load among several carriers helps to spread the risks. The diversification effects achieved by spreading risks across different regions and classes of business allows reinsurers to balance their portfolios and realise[21] a level of capital efficiency that enables them to cover their clients’ risks – and ultimately those of the insureds – at a reasonable price.
承担如此巨大风险的保险公司需要一个可以放置它们的二级市场。再保险人承担了这一职能。在若干个承担者之间共享负荷有助于分散风险。通过横跨不同地域和业务类型所实现的多样化效应，允许再保人去平衡投资组合以及实现一个允许他们以合适的价格承担其客户的风险——尤其是那些担保标的物——的资本效率。（将风险分散到不同地区和业务类别所实现的多样化效应，使再保险公司能够平衡其投资组合，实现一定程度的资本效率，使其能够以合理的价格覆盖客户的风险，最终覆盖被保险人的风险。）
Extreme losses in the past show just how important the reinsurer’s role is. One of the biggest loss events in the history of insurance was on September 11, 2001. The attack on the World Trade Center in New York was a prime[22] example of the complexity of today’s risks, with accumulation of losses across a range of insurance classes such as fire, business interruption, liability, life and health, and compounded[23] by significant capital market losses. The economic losses could only be remotely estimated at100bn. The losses for the international insurance industry came to 40bn, with 24bn of this covered by the reinsurance industry.*
过去的极端损失突显出了再保人的重要性。保险业历史上其中一个最大的损失事件发生在2001年9月11日。对纽约市世贸中心的攻击即是说明现代风险复杂性的典例，合计损失涵盖了一系列保险类型，例如火险、营业中断险（因物质财产遭受损失而导致投资者的营业受到干扰或暂时中断而遭受损失的风险）、责任险（保险人承保被保险人的民事损害赔偿责任的险种）、生命险和健康险，并因资本市场的巨大损失而进一步恶化。
The insurance industry also bore the brunt[24] of the losses in the 2005 hurricane season with Rita, Wilma and Katrina. Some US 94bn of the aggregate losses of US$ 180bn was borne by the insurance industry, US$ 42bn by the reinsurance industry alone. *
保险业同样遭受了2005年飓风季节卡特里娜飓风、丽塔飓风和威尔玛飓风所致损失的冲击。1800亿美元合计损失中的940亿美元就由保险业承担，其中的420亿美元由再保险业独自承担。
The insurance of large and accumulation risks is a definite advantage for the sustainable development of economies. In countries where insurance is not very far advanced, it is the vulnerable economies and above all the inhabitants that have to bear the brunt of these losses. The tsunami of 2004 not only brought immense[25] human suffering but also caused losses of over US$ 10bn. As the insurance density[26] in the regions affected is still very low, the insurance industry only covered a small percentage of these losses, less than US$ 1bn.*
对大额和累积的风险的担保是对经济可持续性发展的一个明显优势。在保险业欠发达的国家，脆弱的经济，尤其是的居民，便不得不承担这些损失的冲击了。2004年的海啸不仅带来极大的人道灾难，也造成了超过100亿美元的损失。因受灾区域的保险密度（保险密度是指按限定的统计区域内常住人口平均保险费的数额）仍处低位，保险业只覆盖了损失的一小部分，少于10亿美元。
Countries with an underdeveloped system of insurance suffer immeasurably more from major catastrophes[27] than those where a good part of[28] the material losses can be covered by professional risk carriers.
相较于可观的物质损失能够被专业的风险承担者所覆盖的地方，保险系统欠发达的国家因重大灾难而遭受了更多难以估量的损失。
Reinsurance has always been an international business since its beginnings in the middle of the 19th century. By assuming a number of independent risks in different regions of the world, reinsurers create a balance in their portfolios. However, the causal and regional links between risks used to be much less pronounced[29] than they are today. The global economy is increasingly networked and interconnected. Risks are becoming ever more complex and the insurance industry has to develop new concepts for its clients in order to meet their need for risk cover in this changed environment.
再保险自它在19世纪中期诞生以来，便经常作为一项国际性业务。通过在世界内不同区域承担一定的独立风险，再保险者在他们的投资组合中实现了一种平衡。但是，对比今天，风险之间偶然性和地域性的关联曾更加不明显。全球经济正急剧网络化和关联化。风险正变得比以往更为复杂，并且保险业为了满足客户在这已然变化了的环境中覆盖风险的需要，必须开发新的概念。
To respond to this development, enterprise risk management has become increasingly important, especially for reinsurers themselves. They have to consider not only the complexity of the original risk, but also the fact that one and the same risk frequently comes from a large number of different sources, such as through international insurers.
为了响应这种发展，企业风险管理变得日益重要，尤其是对于再保险者自身而言。他们必须考虑的不单只是原风险的复杂性，更是原先的和相同的风险频繁地来源于庞大数量的不同源头，例如通过国际保险者。
To deal with these challenges, Munich Re has founded a central unit, Integrated Risk Management, which is responsible for uniform group-wide identification and handling of large and accumulation risks.
为了解决这些挑战，Munich Re曾成立了一个中心部门，Integrated Risk Management，负责集团范围内统一识别和处理大额和累积风险。
The regional business units, supported by a global network of local units, are thoroughly familiar with the special features of the individual markets. Together with clients, they develop solutions for the assumption of risks. Centralised risk management processes ensure that cross-regional and cross-line risks are identified and suitably limited in Munich Re’s aggregate portfolio.
区域业务部门在全球本地单位网络的支持下，对不同独立市场的特点更加熟悉。他们与客户一起共同开发风险承担的解决方案。中心化的风险管理进程确保了跨区域和跨线的风险都被识别了以及被恰当地限制在Munich Re的总投资组合中。
In this process, there is clearly a lot more to consider than just the underwriting risk[30]. For example, if we cover significant product-liability risks of a pharmaceutical company, we do not then buy large amounts of stock in this company. This ensures that we are not struck twice when large claims payments[31] are accompanied by a fall in the company’s share price.
在此进程中，当然不只有承保风险需要纳入考量。举个例子，如果我们覆盖掉制药企业的明显的产品责任风险，我们就不需要再买这家公司的大量股票了。这确保我们在面临大额索赔付款伴随着公司股价下跌时免受再次冲击。
Failure to implement such a holistic[32] risk management policy can lead to a dramatic underestimation of the true risk position.
整体风险管理政策的失败落实将导致对真实风险水平的严重低估。
This has been evident in the current financial market crisis. For successful risk management, it is essential to identify concentration risks and systemic risks for which diversification in the portfolio does not work.
这在最近的金融市场危机中十分明显。对于成功的风险管理，识别投资组合中并不有效的多样性中的集中风险和系统风险，是十分必要的。（为了成功的风险管理，必须识别集中风险和系统性风险，而投资组合中的多元化不起作用。 ）
Far-reaching[33] risk trading mechanisms can lead to very high systemic risks for the entire sector involved. The insurance industry has therefore created global standards. It learnt its lessons from the LMX (London Market Excess of Loss) spiral in the late 1980s, where risks were passed on endlessly in the London market. Two key principles in the global insurance systems are that players must have a sizeable[34] retention[35] in the insurance risk, and that risk transfer in the insurance sector ends with retrocession[36], or the protection of reinsurers. There may be no further transfer of risk beyond this.
影响深远的风险交易机制可以对涉及到的整个部门带来非常高的系统性风险。它从20世纪80年代晚期的伦敦市场超额损失螺旋（“LMX螺旋”，一种基于超额损失再保险合同的现象，在20世纪80年代的伦敦再保险市场中发展起来）中学到教训。全球保险系统中的两条关键原则是：参与者在保险风险中必然有相当的保留；保险部门中的风险转移的以转分保（分保接受人参加再保险业务后，为了减少自身的承担责任，通过合同分保方式，将一部分或全部责任转分给其他再保险人），或者对再保人的保护而结束。在此之后也许再无更进一步的风险转移。
Munich Re seeks to achieve a suitable balance between opportunity and risk – to play a meaningful role in global economic development and in so doing create profit for our stakeholders[37].
Munich Re想要在机遇和风险之间寻找一个恰当的平衡——为了在全球经济的发展中扮演一个意义非凡的角色，并借此为我们的利益相关者创造利润。
At the same time, we also want to contribute to economic and technological progress and thus to the development of society as a whole. We do this by providing our clients with as much capacity as possible and with optimal[38] innovative solutions – for example through the cover of new climate-protection technologies. With our Integrated Risk Management we ensure that our company is protected against losses that may threaten its existence – so that we are always in a position to meet our obligations to our clients.
与此同时，我们也希望对经济和科技的进程做出贡献，并因此社会发展做出相同的贡献。（同时，我们也希望为经济和技术进步做出贡献，从而为整个社会的发展做出贡献。）我们通过为客户提供尽可能多的资金和最佳的创新方案——比如通过覆盖新的气候保护技术，来实现这一目的。借助我们的Integrated Risk Management，我们确保我方公司免受可能威胁其生存的损失——因此时刻准备履行对客户的义务。（以便我们始终能够履行对客户的义务。）
*All the loss estimates above are in 2007 dollars (adjusted for inflation).
*上述所有损失估计均以2007年美元计算（经通货膨胀调整）。
Torsten Jeworrek is a member of the board of management at reinsurer Munich Re.
Torsten Jeworrek是再保险公司Munich Re的管理委员会成员。
词汇
Buzzword：(报刊等的)时髦术语，流行行话
Pave the way for：为……铺平道路
Cargoe：（船或飞机装载的）货物
Marine：海的;海生的;海产的;海船的;货船的;海上贸易的
Emanate from：从…发出;来自;发射;源于;发源于
Business：商业;商务;生意;事情;买卖;商业机构;营业额;公事;重要事情，要点;贸易额;营业状况;归（某人或某机构）管的事
In excess of：超过
Depot：(大宗物品的)贮藏处，仓库;车库;修车厂;火车小站;公共汽车小站
Defective：有缺陷的;有毛病的;有缺点的
Product liability cost：产品责任成本
Spring to mind：突然想起;(想法)一下子冒出来
Coat：给…涂上一层;(用…)覆盖
Toothpaste：牙膏
Comtamate：污染，弄脏;玷污，毒害，腐蚀(人的思想或品德);(加入杂质)使不纯，使变得低劣;使受放射性污染;使受毒气影响
Antifreeze：防冻剂
Propotion：比例;部分;面积;份额;均衡;匀称;正确的比例;倍数关系;等比关系
Pharmaceutical：制药的;配药的;卖药的
Side-effects：副作用
Stroke：中风;击球(动作);一笔;(打、击等的)一下;轻抚;一击;钟声;游泳姿势;（成功的）举动;划水动作;划桨动作;尾桨手
Reinsurer：再保险人;再保公司
Realise：实现;意识到;了解，认识到;变卖，赚得
Prime：主要的;首要的;基本的;优质的;典型的;优异的;有代表性的;最可能的;上乘的
Cpmpound：混合;支付，收取（复利）;使加重;使恶化;由…构成(或形成);掺和;拌和
Brunt：冲击;主要的压力
Immense：巨大的;极大的
Insurance density：保险密度
Catastrophe：灾难;灾祸;困难;横祸;不幸事件
A good part of：……的很大一部分
Pronounced：明显的;显著的;表达明确的
Underwriting risk：承保风险
Claims payment：索赔付款
Holistic：整体的;全面的;功能整体性的
Far-reaching：深远的;广泛的
Sizeable：可观的，相当大的
Retention：保持；维持；保留；(液体、热量等的)保持，阻滞；记忆力；记性
Retrocession：转分保；退却
Stakeholders：(某组织、工程、体系等的)参与人，参与方;赌金保管人;有权益关系者
Optimal：最佳的;最优的
文章来源
Financial Time，《Internationalisation – risk or opportunity?》，https://www.ft.com/content/74d43adc-b43e-11dd-8e35-0000779fd18c
编者言
人工翻译英文商业文章确实比较难。有很多不懂的词汇、难以理解的语序。但总归收获颇丰。
大家没怎么接触保险业，知之甚少。一般也是在入学、入职、买车等时候投保商业保险、人寿保险、车险等险种。文中的责任险、业务中断险等险种，或许又闻所未闻。
文章所述，保险业吸取和合理配置社会闲置资金，可以提高社会财富的使用效率，并通过偿付灾害和事故损失，能够增强经济可持续性发展的健壮性。投保人支付小额保费，将经营活动的潜在风险转移给专业承保人，从而降低业务风险，提高经营的可持续性。风险一旦发生，未投保将遭受相当的损失，而已投保则将获得承保人支付的赔偿金。实际上，投保并非完全转移了风险。超出保额的损失仍需投保人自行承担。承保人（保险公司）只承担限度内的赔偿责任。投保人花小钱降风险，从“保险”中取得了经营上的“无虑”；承保人取得了投保费，并通过投资组合获得投资收益，赚到了钱。各取所需。
不要以为社保就够了。有些情况，社保并不能作兜底保障，商业保险就尤为重要。为了自己和家人的生命财产安全，以及长期的未来，有能力的家庭，还请多买一份商业险吧。