The Parliamentary Review

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

28 | REGIS MUTUAL MANAGEMENT

Paul Koronka, CEO

Established ten years ago, Regis Mutual Management (Regis)

has ushered in a compelling new era for mutuality at a

critical time for the UK financial services community and the

economy at large. Set against the context of uncertainty following

the 2008 banking crisis, its mutual model gave customers choice

for those who were tired with the status quo of rising costs

without receiving proper benefits. The company has grown across

industry sectors over the last decade, and its international growth

has helped contribute to Britain’s business leadership on the world

stage. On this matter, CEO Paul Koronka has more to say.

Our mutual model offers a real alternative to conventional insurance, providing a

more efficient and tailored approach to managing risk. Regis managed mutuals are

entirely owned by their members, and run by a board appointed by the membership,

who make key decisions such as what to do with any surplus after payment of claims,

insurance premiums and administration costs. There are no shareholders; everything

the mutual does is for its members’ benefit. We offer a robust structure for claims

and risk transfer – or as we call it, a “redesigned” approach to insurance.

We’ve led the way in developing the discretionary mutual model, which is generally

the only economically viable way of setting up a mutual in the current environment.

It’s much easier to set this up for people who are interested in protecting their risks

through a mutual, without having to fund it with huge amounts of capital.

Over the last decade, Regis has helped many organisations gain control of their risk in a

transparent way, including enabling them to generate and manage their own surpluses.

Our expertise comes from listening to our customers and designing unique structures

around their specific needs. As demand for our services has grown, we’ve expanded

to cover every kind of support required to build a mutual in virtually every sector.

Market context

The 2008 financial crisis jolted our perspectives along with those of consumers and

businesses. We are warier of short-termism, quick fixes and trickle-down. We are

more open to challenging long-held assumptions, more ethically sensitive to decisions

made in our names and more welcoming of egalitarian alternatives to structuring

institutions. These are powerful, and have not only made the idea of mutuality more

appealing but brought the industry into the 21st century. The idea of an organisation

owned by its members and run in their interests is not new, but recent experiences

have increased its salience.

Though we are predominantly business-to-business, market demand for our services

mirrors a change in public mood over the last decade. Ten years after the banking

crisis, 30 per cent of Britons say they prefer organisations that don’t pay excessive

bonuses to directors. Furthermore, 25 per cent say they want to deal with a business

where they, the customer, feel valued; 29 per cent want to be understood rather

than pitched at. These point toward the four-point ethos that underpins a modern

mutual: long-term focus, member-centricity, straightforwardness and stability.

AT A GLANCE

REGIS MUTUAL MANAGEMENT

»CEO and founder: Paul

Koronka

»Established in 2007

»Based in London and Sydney

»Services: Mutual management;

establishing and managing

mutuals on behalf of clients

»No. of employees: 150

»Specialist in discretionary

mutuals

»Manages a range of mutuals

from public sector, retail and

corporate industries

»www.rmml.com

Regis Mutual

Management

29REGIS MUTUAL MANAGEMENT |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2018

Consumers may not have talked

enthusiastically about mutuality before,

but the values and attributes they are

gravitating toward in fact described the

very essence of a modern mutual.

Four milestones in our journey are:

1. Military family. Regis entered

retail in 2015 with the launch of The

Military Mutual (TMM), which aims to

better serve the needs of the “military

family” – servicemen and women in the

armed forces, reservists, veterans and

theirfamilies.

Broadly speaking, this community

is comprised of roughly 20 million

people. Between them is a strong

sense of community, a common bond

enshrined in the military covenant.

Many had experienced difficulty finding

financial products that took full account

of their particular needs – whether

this was a consequence of serving

or feeling unsupported by general

financial services companies when

making the transition into civilian life.

As TMM’s chairman Major-General

SirSebastian Roberts says, too many in

this community do not receive adequate

provision from financial services.

2. Public sector. For the first time, the

fire authorities have started up a mutual

using the discretionary mutual model,

albeit a hybrid version. This is significant

for us and for mutuality in general – it

uses our area of specialist expertise and

represents a strong endorsement of the

structures we’ve developed. We know

there’s plenty of interest among the

rest of the public sector regarding our

mutual structures and how they can

assist in the way risk is dealt with.

3. The high street. Given the external

challenges faced by high streets across

the UK, a mutual for independent

retailers made perfect sense.

The Retail Mutual (TRM) provides an

alternative to conventional insurance for

the independent retail community in the

UK. It exists to give them peace of mind

and protect independent businesses

on our high streets. A decade after

we started managing the mutual,

TRMnow has more than 4,500 covers,

protecting not only retailers’ businesses

but their homes and rental portfolios

too. With the support of Regis, the

mutual continues to grow, innovate and

introduce new products and services.

4. On the world stage. Three decades

ago, Australian universities were facing

difficulties. Commercial insurers had

abandoned aspects of a university’s

insurance that they couldn’t afford

to provide. As a result of this,

Unimutual, a discretionary mutual,

was established. Unimutual provides

cover for Australian universities and the

specific risks they have. With thousands

of staff and students, universities

essentially function as mini-cities. The

risks range from casualties, public

liability, professional indemnity, medical

malpractice and clinical trials to those

of management and cyber liability.

The member universities are a network of

businesses with specific needs and risks

to manage. An understanding of these

needs binds these universities together,

who ordinarily would be in competition

with one another. In almost three

decades, the Unimutual has become

the largest of our mutuals, currently

covering around $60 billion worth of

university assets across Australia.

The future

In terms of creating more mutuals, I

believe we’re only scratching the surface.

We have received approaches from all

directions, businesses large and small.

Interest is also coming from further

afield than customary. We’re currently

conversing with companies and lawyers

from Germany, Luxembourg and

France, where insurance markets have

become stultified and monopolised.

Whatever unfolds, we’ll continue to

be a pioneer for and advocate of the

mutual ethos in its purest form. We live

in the age of consumer empowerment,

and those businesses that put

consumers in the driving seat will be

tomorrow’s success stories. Within

this, mutuality has a key role to play; in

this respect, Regis aspires to be at the

forefront. The mutual advantage has

never been so tangible or compelling.

The Retail Mutual

provides an alternative to

conventional insurance

The Military Mutual aims

to better serve the need

of the military family

Businesses that

put consumers

in the driving

seat will be

tomorrow’s

success stories

“