The credit market crisis will shift the balance of power within the finance industry towards insurers and away from banks, the Chief Executive of the world's biggest reinsurer Munich Re said.
German insurers are also unlikely to make use of the 500 billion-euro ($683 billion) rescue package for the financial sector expected to be adopted by parliament this week, Nikolaus von Bomhard told the Hamburg business journalists' club late on Tuesday.
"We ourselves will have nothing to do with it, from today's point of view," von Bomhard said.
Fellow reinsurer Hannover Re has also said it does not plan to make use of the package, while Europe's biggest insurer Allianz says it is well capitalised and has "no direct need" to use the fund.