With large international companies managing and financing their group-wide risks centrally, there is a pressing need for a central risk management tool. Captive concepts, which have been around for many years, answer this need and have become very popular in risk management.

Whistleblowers have been making headlines almost every month this past year – and this follows a string of scandals such as LuxLeaks, Panama and the Paradise Papers as well as Dieselgate and Cambridge Analytica, which have exposed the limited assistance available for people seeking to expose wrongful corporate behaviour in the public interest. Only 10 EU member states have comprehensive legislation in place, with others offering partial protection at most. At EU level, there are some existing instruments in place that provide for whistleblower protection, but these have varying levels of detail and remain predominantly limited to financial services, transport safety and environmental protection.

After 60 years of fierce debate, France has finally decided to reform its income tax system and to shift the burden of income tax collection from the State to employers, thus aligning itself with all other EU Member States and most western countries which deduct income tax under a Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system. As of 1 January 2019, employers will be compelled to collect income tax through deducting it from their employees’ salaries and to pay it to the French Tax Department.

Global Benefits Vision: Hello Wendy – please tell us about your background and your career to date. Wendy Liu: I am an actuary by background, and I started my career in consulting before joining Zurich. The majority of my career has been related to global employee benefits. I began on the U.S. domestic side, expanded to international benefits and now am based in Europe covering global benefits.