Antonio Huertas: “We have the opportunity to take advantage of the European funds to jump into the future with a new economic and social contract”

 MAPFRE’s Chairman, Antonio Huertas, participated this Monday in the seminar “The financial system in the Covid-19 crisis”, organized by the Association of Journalists of Economic Information (APIE) at the Menéndez-Pelayo International University.

Huertas has analyzed the economic situation facing the country in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, and has declared that Spain cannot afford a second total shutdown of its economy, showing concern about the impact that this crisis will have in employment; “the furloghed employees program is not going to avoid a scenario of accelerated increase in unemployment, even exceeding the peak we reached in the previous crisis”.

Given the magnitude of the challenges, the Chairman of MAPFRE has highlighted the role that private insurance can play as a key actor in income distribution mechanisms, as shown in a report by the Geneva Association published today. He has also called to take advantage of the next injection of funds resulting from the European Union agreement this summer, to tackle a reconstruction of the Spanish production model.

“We are facing the opportunity to leap into the future with a new economic and social contract that strengthens this country and equips subsequent generations with powerful tools and capabilities to face the future. We have to take advantage of this historic moment to do so,” explained Huertas.

A central element of his intervention has focused on private savings, showing that Spain is almost the only advanced country that has approached pension savings only from the public pillar.

He has asked the members of the multipartisan Pensions Commitee in the Spanish Congress, who resume their work in September, “to broaden their field of vision and propose reforms that, in addition to guaranteeing public pensions as generous as possible, allow new workers to generate complementary savings during their active life, so they can live comfortably when they retire”.

Finally, Huertas alluded to the recent cyber attack with ransomware that the company suffered in Spain during the second half of August. He explained that the production systems are already “practically at the same operational level that we had before the incident” and that starting tomorrow, customers who have received a lower quality service due to the cyberattack will be financially compensated.