Dieter Berg thinks he can look back at four years as president of the International Union of Marine Insurance with some satisfaction.

He gives a lot of credit to the work of his colleagues at IUMI but there certainly has been progress under his tenure.

At the upcoming annual gathering in Cape Town, where he will hand over the presidency to RSA Insurance's Richard Turner, a pilot for a global loss database is to be unveiled by facts and figures committee chairman Don Harrell.