Bangkok – Generali and the World Bank Group (WBG) have today signed a Memorandum of Understanding during the Annual Meetings of the WBG and the International Monetary Fund in Bangkok, built on a shared commitment to mobilise private capital, strengthen resilience and expand targeted insurance and investment solutions across emerging markets.

The collaboration aims to advance emerging markets investment solutions as well as relevant insurance offerings. For investment, Generali and the WBG will cooperate to create investable opportunities that can help channel institutional capital towards frontier and emerging markets while meeting Generali’s investment requirements.

For insurance solutions, initially focused on Asian markets, the partnership will focus on three priority areas: develop coverage options to match the needs of aging populations in line with the WBG’s Silver Economy Program, provide targeted support to the agricultural sector for climate and crop insurance, and strengthen disaster and climate risk protection.

Furthermore, the parties will also cooperate to support risk pooling across the emerging regions, creating diversified and scalable structures for disaster-risk coverage and to design innovative risk-pooling mechanisms linked to climate risks.

Andrea Sironi, Chairman of Generali Group, said: “I am extremely proud to announce Generali’s partnership with the World Bank Group today, which reflects our shared commitment to strengthening resilience in emerging economies. These economies are playing a crucial role in global growth but remain disproportionately exposed to risks for which protection is insufficient. In an increasingly volatile world, insurance and risk-finance solutions are essential to helping households, businesses and governments manage risk more effectively while unlocking investments and supporting long-term growth. Together with the World Bank Group, we will combine our respective public and private sector expertise and capabilities to mobilise capital at scale and expand access to new solutions that foster resilience as well as sustainable economic development in a meaningful way.”

Ajay Banga, World Bank Group President, said: “Alongside stronger infrastructure and better policy, insurance can help protect development gains—and make the next investment possible. That is the opportunity for our partnership with Generali: bring long-term capital and risk expertise together with our country relationships, financing, and guarantees.”

Additionally, the partnership between Generali and the WBG will also focus on advocacy, thought leadership, policy dialogue and awareness-raising activities aimed at promoting a better understanding of the role of insurance in strengthening financial resilience and addressing protection gaps.

The partnership was announced at the margins of “Insuring Resilient Growth: De-Risking Investments and Creating Jobs”, an official event of the Annual Meetings organised by Generali and the Office of the Italian Executive Director at the World Bank Group, with the participation of Ajay Banga, President of the World Bank Group, and Alexander De Croo, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Generali’s broader commitment to fostering sustainability and resilience
In the Group’s “Lifetime Partner 27: Driving Excellence” strategy, sustainability is even more embedded into Generali’s core business and operations, aligning with the commitment to be a responsible insurer, investor, employer and corporate citizen. As part of this commitment, the Group has a strong focus on public-private partnerships and on using its expertise to support public bodies in fostering sustainability and resilience. This includes the multi-year partnership between Generali and UNDP to enhance the financial resilience of vulnerable communities, MSMEs, and global value chains to climate and other risks. Furthermore, Generali is also part of the Insurance Development Forum’s (IDF) Blueprint for Infrastructure Resilience Development with the aim to facilitate insurance sector investments in infrastructure that strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities in emerging countries against climate change-related risks and other natural disasters. Earlier this year, Generali further announced its partnership with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization to support the Italy-funded EU Global Gateway flagship initiative to boost climate resilience, local value addition and regulatory readiness across East African coffee value chains, leveraging public and private solutions such as parametric insurance.