The Berne Union has elected Daniel Riordan, CEO of global corporate in North America with Zurich, as president at its annual general meeting. He replaces Johan Schrijver.

At the meeting, Andreas Klasen, head of economics and policy at PwC in Germany was elected as the vice-president while Karin Apelman, of EKN Sweden, and Jing Fenglei, of Sinosure China, were elected as incoming chair and vice-chair of the medium to long-term committee.

The chair and vice-chair, Ralph Lai of HKEC Hong Kong and Khemais El-Gazzah of ICIEC Saudi Arabia, of the short-term committee and the chair and vice-chair, John Hegeman of AIG US and Vinco David of Atradius Netherlands, of the investment insurance committee were re-elected.

Under the new leadership, the Berne Union plans to insure the same amount of export trade and investment as last year, when its members insured US$1.8tn, which accounts for more than 10% of world exports.

It was pointed out at the meeting that growth in the first half of 2013 has been flat compared to last year in many of Berne Union’s areas of business.

Insurance on short-term trade transactions during the first half of 2013, with payment terms of typically 30 to 90 days, remained steady compared to the same period last year at just over US$1tn.

For export transactions on longer payment terms, the volume of covered transactions remains at US$626bn – the highest level ever.

Insurance of foreign direct investment reached US$54bn in the first half of 2013 – consistent with the same period last year.