One platform, 50+ companies: how Vienna Insurance Group made scale an advantage

Since entering Central and Eastern Europe in 1990, Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) has steadily expanded. They’re now the region's largest listed international insurance group, with more than 50 insurance and pension companies across 30 countries.  

Growth on that scale tests an operating model: every country has its own accounting regime, every acquisition its own systems, reporting obligations that keep climbing. Insurers reaching that point either carry that weight company by company, or make scale work in their favor on one shared platform. Vienna Insurance Group chose the second route, standardizing on SimCorp across every company they added.

The solution

When Tomas Kana joined Vienna Insurance Group in 2010, the plan was to implement SimCorp in the five biggest countries. What followed instead was continuous expansion: 30 countries, more than 50 insurance and pension companies, and subsequently new regulation arrived throughout, from Solvency II and IFRS 9 to EMIR and ESG reporting. Rather than build separate solutions country by country, the group extended the same platform each time. The payoff is leverage: a regulation, interface, or report is implemented once and becomes available across the group, with a single harmonized chart of accounts covering every company.

By using the single SimCorp platform VIG can:

• Keep accounting consistent across local GAAP regimes and IFRS, country by country.
• Run investment operations and first-level support for all companies from one middle office team.
• Implement a new interface or regulatory report once, then reuse it across every subsidiary.
• Draw reporting straight from data already in the system.

The business benefits

Economies of scale across 30 countries
On its own, each company would carry the full weight of every new regulation. Sharing one platform means the work is done once and serves all companies.

One group-wide view 
The whole group works from one consistent view. Reporting, forecasting and planning draw on one unified data layer rather than a separate accounting framework in each country.

Regulatory readiness, delivering competitive advantage
While smaller insurers in Montenegro and Bosnia are only now adopting IFRS 9 and IFRS 17, Vienna Insurance Group's companies have had both standards in place for some time. That head start means they can focus on their strategic priorities instead.

We really try to be first movers and the market leaders in all of these countries. Many of them are rather small, so it’s important to have a common platform and use the economies of scale that come with it.

– Tomas Kana, Teamlead Midoffice, Vienna Insurance Group