While we were in Vienna, TTP Studios was running alongside the conference — and we sat down with five senior leaders from across trade credit insurance and reinsurance.

Our Vienna C-suite series will be dropping on TTP Studios shortly.

In the chair with Deepesh Patel:

🔹 Jan Müller, President of ICISA — on ICISA at 100, the industry’s biggest challenges, and what he wants to have moved before he hands over 

🔹 Ivan Gonzalez, CEO Corporate Solutions, Swiss Re — on the role of trade credit and surety in Swiss Re’s strategy, client challenges in a volatile environment, and what drives the sector’s evolution

In the chair with Eleanor Hill:

🔹 Nicole Pieterse-van der Velde, Group Chief People Officer, Swiss Re — on AI and the future of work, talent, and what the industry needs to get right on people 

🔹 Andreas Tesch, CRO, Atradius — on long-term industry viability, technology, regulation, and where human expertise still matters most 

🔹 Xavier Durand, Group CEO, Coface — on agentic AI, trade regionalisation, and the limits he wants to push in credit insurance

First interview dropping soon.

What does the reinsurance industry need to do today to still be viable and relevant in 2036?

Our Editor in Chief Deepesh Patel moderated the Reinsurance Senior Leadership Panel at ICISA COMI 2026, with three of the most senior figures in global reinsurance.

Clemens Jungsthöfel, CEO of Hannover Re, took the protection gap as his lens. Reinsurance has come through one of its softest January renewals in years. Can the industry grow into the gap without underpricing the risk?

Bertrand Romagne, CEO International Reinsurance at AXA XL, focused on the human side, what the next generation expects from this industry, and what that means for how it needs to evolve.

Ivan Gonzalez, CEO Corporate Solutions at Swiss Re, addressed the fragmenting value chain. MGAs, captives, fronting carriers, parametric structures, AI-driven underwriting. In trade credit and surety specifically, who actually owns the customer relationship at the end of that change?

How will the trade credit and surety industry remain viable and relevant in 10 years’ time?

Our Treasury Editor Eleanor Hill moderated the Primary Insurance Senior Leadership Panel at ICISA COMI 2026, with the CEOs and CRO of three of the world’s largest trade credit insurers.

Aylin Somersan Coqui, Group CEO of Allianz Trade, led on AI and the value chain, where it is already producing real change in how the industry operates, not just where it is heading.

Xavier Durand, Group CEO of Coface, discussed penetration, that is, in a more volatile and geopolitically uncertain world, does the business case for trade credit insurance get easier, or more complicated?

Andreas Tesch, CRO of Atradius and former President of ICISA, pushed into the structural value chain shifts, who ends up owning the customer relationship in 2036? And where do ECAs and the private market fit as trade dynamics become more complex?

Two presentations at ICISA COMI 2026 covered the technology question from opposite ends of the timeline.

Kirk Cheesman, Group Managing Director of National Credit Insurance, joined from Australia via video to address the future of connectivity between insurers, brokers, and clients. The gap between what the technology already allows and what the industry has implemented is wider than it should be.

Anca Dan, Group Risk Underwriting Director at Coface, addressed decision-making in underwriting — past, present, and future. Not long ago, a credit decision on €10,000 began with an airmail envelope that took three weeks to arrive. Today, the same decision is either fully automated or resolved within 24 hours.

Behind her as she spoke was the original 1912 Titanic insurance contract: £1 million of cover, a premium rate of 0.75%, and a total loss. A reminder that the tools change, but the accountability does not.

Looking five to ten years ahead: what people and skills will this industry actually need, and are we building them fast enough?

Our Treasury Editor Eleanor Hill moderated the skills panel at ICISA COMI 2026, with three perspectives that don’t often sit in the same room.

Nicole Pieterse-van der Velde, Group Chief People Officer at Swiss Re, addressed how AI is changing the content of work across credit insurance and reinsurance, and what that means for how organisations are structured and led.

Emilie Dhal, Global Head of HR at Allianz Trade, focused on what a skills-first approach actually looks like in practice: hiring for adaptability, preparing people for roles that don’t yet exist, and what it takes to make that shift without losing existing capability.

Kaja Drunkenmölle, Associate Underwriter at Hannover Re and roughly 18 months into her career, brought the view from the other end. If routine work becomes automated, what still needs to be learned through direct experience to build the judgment and commercial instinct the industry depends on?

ICISA’s history is important. But the future is more important.

That was the frame for the afternoon at ICISA COMI 2026 last week, and it started by honouring where the association has been.

Jos Kroon, former President of ICISA, and Gustavo Krieger, President of Afianzadora Latinoamericana, reflected on what 100 years of credit insurance and surety looks like from the inside. Between them, they span decades of ICISA’s evolution, from a largely domestic product to an industry now supporting roughly 15% of global trade.

The industry has changed beyond recognition in terms of tools, scale, and geography. The fundamentals, trust, relationships, the willingness to stand behind the risk, have not.

At Trade Treasury Payments, we were delighted to be media partners at ICISA COMI 100.

ICISA COMI 2026 opened on Tuesday 2 June with a morning that set the tone for everything that followed.

Eleonore Treu, Director of Trade Finance Week at ICC Austria and TTP Editorial Board Member, gave the opening address on Austria as a hub for international business and trade. Karim Ould Chih from UNIDO and Wei Huang from the IAEA followed with perspectives on how multilateral institutions are approaching development finance and innovation.

The keynote was delivered by Daniel Susskind, a leading academic voice on AI and the future of work. His session was a fitting frame for the afternoon’s discussions on technology, skills, and industry relevance.

Richard Wulff, Executive Director of ICISA, then presented the ICISA100 Report — Trade Credit Insurance and Surety: Protecting Trade, Facilitating Finance, Enabling Growth.

The afternoon is where we came in.

🇦🇹 Last week, we were in Vienna as official media partners of ICISA’s Committee on Managerial Issues (COMI) — hosting and MCing a full day of sessions at the Anantara Palais Hansen, in front of a live room and a global livestream audience.

The programme ran the full arc: 100 years of industry history, a forward-looking panel on people and skills, two presentations on where technology is taking underwriting and client connectivity, and two senior leadership panels on what credit insurance, surety, and reinsurance need to do today to still matter in 2036.

The line-up reflected where the industry concentrates its leadership. The CEOs of Allianz Trade, Coface, and Hannover Re. Group Executive Committee members of Swiss Re. The CEO International of AXA XL Reinsurance. The CRO of Atradius.

Thank you to ICISA – International Credit Insurance & Surety Association for the partnership, and to every speaker and panellist who took part. 

Anca Dan, Group Risk Underwriting Director at Coface, has been discussing what underwriting actually means: to write your name under the risk.

Behind her, the original 1912 Titanic insurance contract, showing GBP 1 million of cover and a low premium rate of 0.75%. Loss: catastrophic.

Not long ago, a single credit decision on €10,000 started with an airmail envelope from Cyprus. It took three weeks to arrive, and another week to make a decision.

Today, these decisions can be fully automated, or done within 24 hours.

Anca laid out three forces reshaping the future of underwriting: data turned into unique and actionable insights, risk management becoming more fluid, responsive and agile, and precision and speed enhanced across every stage of the underwriting cycle.

Trade Treasury Payments is live in Vienna, proud to be the official media partner of ICISA COMI 2026, marking 100 years of supporting trade and surety.

What’s the evolution of ICISA, formerly ICIA?

We asked two people who lived it, speaking at the ICISA 100 AGM 2026. Jos Kroon, former President of ICISA, and Gustavo Krieger, President of Afianzadora Latinoamericana, reflected on 100 years of trade credit insurance and surety,

From the Nationale Borg boardroom to Latin American surety markets, their combined experience spans decades of change.

What stays the same? The relationships.

What has transformed beyond recognition? Almost everything else.

We’re delighted to be media partners at ICISA 100’s Committee On Managerial Issues (COMI) in Vienna, Austria.

Eleonore Treu, ICC Austria’s Director of Trade Finance Week and Editorial Board Member of Trade Treasury Payments, gave the morning keynote, discussing Austria’s role in global trade, a status update on trade digitalisation and its importance, and the important role of partnership within trade, trade credit insurance, reinsurance and surety.

This morning, our treasury editor Eleanor Hill sat down with Nicole Pieterse-van der Velde, Chief People Officer, Swiss Re on the future of HR, people and skills, as well as Andreas Tesch, CRO, Atradius, on what how insurance needs to evolve, to remain viable and relevant.

Our C-suite series will be dropping soon, on TTP Studios.