2 June 2010,

Groupama Insurances has appointed Niraj Shah as Chief Actuary

Bringing over 14 years experience in Banking and Financial services including 6 years in Actuarial, Niraj joined Groupama in 2006. He moves into his new position having played a leading role in the company's capital modelling exercise in preparation for Solvency II. Prior to this Niraj was responsible for the actuarial pricing and reserving of a number of Groupama's business lines. He takes up his new position in July and will report directly to Managing Director, Laurent Matras.

As Chief Actuary, Niraj will head Groupama's specialist Actuarial, Reinsurance and Knowledge Management team. He takes over from Steven Blake who will be leaving the company at the end of June to take up a senior management appointment at RSA.

Laurent Matras said: "I am delighted that Niraj will be stepping up to head our Actuarial function. Our business remains keenly focused on the bottom line and with this in mind, his team will continue to play a key role in helping to ensure our future success. In his relatively short time with Groupama, Niraj has already developed the respect of our senior underwriting teams and some very close relationships. These will serve him well in his new role.

"Although we are sorry to be losing Steven it is a real testament to our strength in depth as a company that we are able to make such a senior appointment from within."

Niraj Shah adds: "This is a challenging time for insurers with highly competitive market conditions putting significant pressure on results. Getting the pricing and reserving right is a critical success factor and I am pleased to say that I have inherited a very strong team that is extremely capable of offering the strong support necessary to Groupama's underwriting teams.
This appointment is a fantastic opportunity for me and I'm really looking forward to it."