The View from Valencia

The Regional Branch of Consorcio de Compensación de Seguros (CCS) in Valencia plays a crucial role in managing extraordinary risks, especially with regard to flooding. This is because the Region of Valencia is one of the areas most affected by this type of events in Spain.

On 29 October 2024, Valencia experienced the most significant loss event in the history of Consorcio. At that time, the office was closed due to refurbishment works, and the staff was working from home. Most of the furniture had been placed in a storage facility, which was also affected by the flood. Nevertheless, despite the difficulties, the team reacted quickly, and the office was made operational the following day, as the priority was to assist those affected, listen to them, inform them, and support each person.

The regional branch team, like Valencian society as a whole, felt a special connection and solidarity with the victims, those affected, and those harmed by this major catastrophe. As residents of Valencia, we shared the pain and suffering of those affected, while also being fully aware of our responsibility: after the rescue phase, recovery would come, and it would be time for Consorcio to act.

On the very day of the 29 October 2024 cut-off low-related floods, the Direction of Operations was informed, the affected areas were confirmed, and loss reports were commissioned from expert offices. It was also noted that travel was impossible at that moment and that the event would continue the following day. Furthermore, special attention was drawn to potential overflowing. Finally, once the loss reports were received, estimates would be updated and the call centre would be informed.

On the 30^th, the regional branch office was opened to the public: it was now possible to provide in-person assistance, safely and without difficulty.

From then on, plenty of suggestions, proposals, initiatives, and organisational measures were shared, all aimed at strengthening customer service and claims-handling teams. In my view, what stands out above all was the clarity and sound judgement in recognising this as a unique opportunity for the Spanish insurance sector to show unity.

Managing such an overwhelming volume of claims generates a massive workload for the regional office of origin: numerous processes on the claims handler’s desktop, many emails to be dealt with or forwarded, online document submission, provisional reports, loss adjuster notifications, and queries from brokers and policyholders. In short, these initial tasks are the responsibility of the regional office of origin, although they were subsequently distributed through shared management among the other regional offices. The result is a demanding pace of work, to which must be added the need to check for duplicate entries, the response to requests with deadline, and the correction of registration mistakes.

The distribution of files among the various participating units has been essential to resolving claims, and I would like to highlight their level of commitment and high capabilities. As a result of this distribution, the Valencia branch office retained its original responsibilities while also being at the forefront of customer service. This gave us the opportunity to act as a liaison with all the claims-handling units. It is natural that an event with so many claims, so many parties involved, and so many operational processes would pose a challenge in terms of file management. For this reason, the new role of the Valencia branch within the organization was quickly recognized: knowing the problems first-hand made it possible to inform those affected about the status of their claim and resolve any issues related to their claim handling.

Over time, customer service and email support have evolved. Initially, the focus was on assisting with filing claims; later, on confirming their registration; and finally, on facilitating the assignment of a loss adjuster. From that point onwards, the branch office’s work focused on helping affected policyholders with whatever they needed.

Once again, CCS employees have demonstrated diligence, commitment and responsiveness, and we hope that this work has contributed to the recovery of Valencian society after such a significant impact.