Starting gun 
At the same time this proposal represented the starting gun for a further phase of the transformation of the Group begun in 1997 within the BARC Group. The UNIQA project, valid for the whole Group, will build upon the progress already made in reorganization and will lead to a forward-looking corporate identity.

Chairman Herbert Schimetschek:

„Thus UNIQA is not just a name, but also a programme for our Group. The measures within this project will ensure that we follow up new developments more quickly and more efficiently.  Particularly the companies in the BARC Versicherungs-Holding, with their front-line know-how, are predestined to accompany their customers, staff and shareholders into the new millennium with unique offers and solutions. And here we are building on the previous performance of our staff, and at the same time strengthening the claim expressed in the new name to uniqueness in quality, service and competence.”

Core features of the concept for the future
Core features of this concept for the future are:

• Continuing integration and simultaneously ongoing specialisation by Austria-Collegialität (personal insurance) and Bundesländer-Versicherung (property)
• Setting up new services and innovative product families
• Intensive training of all staff in order to meet the challenges of new values in a positive manner
• Use of professional instruments to recognize and take account of trends and life requirements of people at the threshold of the 21^st century.

Whilst the main organizational steps in the UNIQA project will be concluded by late autumn 12999, the contextual aspect of the project – matching services to developments increasingly dictated by individual requirements – may be seen as a permanent process.

Unique quality in services and products
The aim of the UNIQA project is unique quality within Austria in terms of service and products. Chairman Herbert Schimetschek:: “The name BARC was always considered provisional and arose from the initials of operating companies within our Group (Bundesländer, Austria, Raiffeisen, Collegialität).. With the new name we want to make clear that the Group is more than just the sum of its parts – and that the basis of future success lies in the commonality of all our firms with the new name”.