Deciding to merge large companies can be disruptive and will likely cause problems for at least one of the firms involved, the chief financial officer of Zurich Insurance told CNBC Wednesday.
Recent reports have suggested that German firm Allianz could be interested in merging with its peer Zurich. Allianz Chief Oliver Baete told the Financial Times last month that companies should be prepared to merge, and his company in particular was ready for potential talks.
However, George Quinn, the financial chief at Zurich Insurance, told CNBC that these types of mergers are not a good idea.
"The challenge for insurance companies is that our business is typically quite local and I think if you do these large global merger transactions you disrupt at least one, maybe two different business and it is hard to get the full value from them," he said.
Speaking last week, Zurich CEO Mario Greco made a similar point. He said that there is no need for consolidation between European insurances at this moment in time.