Investigating the development of enterprise risk management in the insurance industry: an empirical study on four major European insurers

The objective of this article is to report the results of a study examining the Enterprise Risk Management (hereinafter referred to as “ERM”) practiced by four European-based insurance companies. In particular, the study explores the understanding, evolution, design, and performance of ERM in these organizations and the challenges which they face in implementing ERM. The study concludes that the level of understanding of the nature of ERM varies significantly between companies and between different parts of the same organization. In addition, whilst effective ERM requires an interdisciplinary approach, the ERM which is practiced by the European-based insurers is dominated by a single discipline.