When it comes to calculating risks, nobody does it better than insurance executives. It is, after all, their business. And when it comes to insurance executives, there is no better exponent than Henning Schulte-Noelle, chairman and chief executive of Munich-based insurance giant Allianz.
It seems ironic then that Mr Schulte-Noelle and the rest of Allianz's management board could have so woefully miscalculated the risks associated with buying Dresdner Bank when they took it over 15 months ago. Far from helping them to fulfil their ambition to create a global player in the bancassurance industry, Dresdner has emerged as financial black hole due to huge losses at its corporate lending business and investment bank, known as Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW).
