High proportion of SIRC 2019 survey respondents embracing insurtech, Intelligent Insurer finds
More than half, 53 percent, of respondents to a survey carried out by Intelligent Insurer said they are actively partnering with or investing in insurtech companies, and insurtech is high on the agenda at SIRC this year.
Twenty-six percent of respondents surveyed said that insurtech and its influence on the industry would be the main talking point of this year’s conference. The field is developing fast and those surveyed indicated an appetite to engage with new solutions that could streamline processes, improve accuracy and efficiency and help deliver a better service to clients.
From improved analytics to real-time reporting and distributed ledger technology, the industry is currently experiencing an upsurge in solutions designed to replace legacy systems and move the industry forward.
While there have been concerns in the industry related to the cost individual carriers could face if developing their own insurtech solutions, 20 percent of those surveyed said they are developing their own technologies in-house.
Others are more circumspect: 13.5 percent said they are watching developments in insurtech but have not acted yet, while a further 13.5 percent said that insurtech is overhyped at the moment.
“Some people will need convincing before laying aside trusted systems for something new,” said one respondent.
Cyber caution
Asked what other big issues are currently high on the agenda, 39 percent of respondents said that new and emerging risks such as cyber are a concern, with the key issue being how or whether to be involved in these spaces. As a rapidly evolving area of risk, cyber is still viewed with caution, with some expressing concern about how to define and price these risks.
Talent management is another major area of concern and interest, with 26 percent of those surveyed saying that attracting and recruiting the best people is an important issue. This issue topped the agenda at the reinsurance meeting in Baden-Baden last month, where concerns were expressed about the aging demographics of the industry and the need to compete with other professions that might present themselves as more “glamorous”.
The point was made that more needs to be done to highlight the power of re/insurance to turn people’s lives around after disasters. This was echoed in yesterday’s keynote session delivered by Swiss Re’s Jerome Jean Haegeli on the role of re/insurance in making the world more resilient.
This is particularly pertinent in the light of recent nat cat losses: 13 percent of SIRC delegates surveyed said that climate change and how the sector can make a difference is a big issue for them.
Despite recent losses there remains concern about rates, and the absence of the hard market that might in the past have followed such events. Of the Intelligent Insurer readers surveyed, 22 percent highlighted the issue of profitability as an issue, due to rates remaining soft and interest rates low.
However, there is also plenty of optimism among respondents, with 23 percent saying business is good, 36 percent saying they plan to expand into new areas of business and 28 percent saying they intend to increase their market share.
