Allianz has consolidated its position as the most valuable insurance brand in this year’s Brand Finanace Global 500 ranking.Holding the pole position for three consecutive years, it has become the only insurer to be included in the Top 50 of the world’s strongest brands in 2016.

The South Africa based organization said in a statement made available to News Express that as a result of its strong premium growth, the Group’s brand value increased by 8.1% from €17.2bn to €18.6bn (US$ 20.3bn), putting Allianz at number 43 among the top 500 global brands, up from 44^th place in 2015.

In the 2016 ranking, Brand Finance recognized Allianz’ resilience in a challenging environment and the Group’s strong financial performance driven by its flagship brand, ‘customer centricity’ and ‘digital by default’ approach. This made it also one of the most brand driven financial services companies in this year’s ranking.

Christian Deuringer, Head of Global Brand Management at Allianz, said: “This excellent ranking shows that our flagship brand strategy as well as our clear focus on the customer and on digitalization are building trust and resonating with our clients around the globe. We would like to thank them for their growing loyalty.”

Assessing the future potential of Allianz, Brand Finance recognized that the Group’s customer-centric approach is capable of driving value and building on existing scale. It also considered the Allianz brand to be particularly well-positioned to benefit from growth opportunities presented by digitalization-driven changes in the insurance sector.

Allianz operates in over 70 countries. It has been operating on the African continent for over 100 years and is already among the leaders of the market in South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Tunisia, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central Africa, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali, Republic of Congo, Senegal and Togo.