Industry Trends

S&P Global Ratings report that persistent pressures from inflation, tightening financial conditions and slower economic growth in China and other markets are likely to cause constraints on operating conditions for property/casualty (P/C) insurers in emerging markets.

Poor claims experiences could put up to $170 billion of insurance premiums at risk in the next five years, with process inefficiencies in underwriting potentially risking another $160 billion over the same period, according to a new report from Accenture.

An increase in inflationary pressures such as the rise in gas prices, the acceleration of extreme climate events and the soaring cost of manufactured goods have caused insurance rates to rise to record levels this year.

The firm claims that Anthemis led the round, which was also supported by SoftBank Group’s SB Opportunity Fund, Banco Popular, the largest bank in Puerto Rico, Consorcio, 305 Ventures, a Miami-based venture capital firm, and first-check investor Divergent Capital.

The recent Qorus Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards highlighted the world’s leading insurance changemakers. The winners of each category stood up against tough competition with initiatives that were not only innovative, but effective and with measurable impact.

Innovation in the insurance industry is not just important, it is essential. A more dynamic market has meant insurers are venturing into non-traditional sectors as well as looking for more advanced ways of serving existing markets. The industry must ramp up its innovation efforts if it is to tackle increasingly threatening risks, such as climate events and cyber-attacks.

Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg said the insurer is seeing favorable returns, but additional rate is needed to “keep pace with loss costs, which are hardly benign.”

Climate change has led to more intense wildfires, flooding and hurricanes – and they’re only projected to get worse. But major insurance carriers are often hesitant to insure customers in disaster-prone areas.

Developed by a senior team of actuaries and data scientists at Akur8, the objective of this new paper is to familiarize practitioners with Penalized regression as an extension of established actuarial techniques, instead of considering it one among several new modeling techniques from the Machine Learning and Data Science literature. Akur8 is excited to publish this information in an effort to help expand the literature available to the actuary and insurance community on this important topic.

Embedded insurance is a growing focus area of digital distribution across the insurance industry. By making insurance available in conjunction with other products on existing online services, customers can easily add insurance protection that fits their needs and budget as part of a customer journey linked to an established need.

While the market for cyber insurance is expected to remain challenging “for the foreseeable future,” there is optimism for rate stabilization as organization focus on cyber hygiene, according to broker Marsh.

The insurance industry has reached a point where many executives are also technologists, even if their title has a different designation. What’s driving this, in part, is multiple disciplines working together to further technological progress.

Allianz SE says car-shipping incidents are now a major cause of loss for the insurance industry after a cargo ship with about 4,000 Volkswagen AG vehicles caught fire and sank in the Atlantic two months ago.

Some of the most important questions insurance company CEOs ask their reserving actuaries are: “How much adverse development are we experiencing?” “What is driving these results?” and “Are any parts of the business heading into trouble?”

Insurance executives are recognizing the power of innovation to accelerate the pace of company change. Yet for innovation to deliver long-term value, it must become embedded in a carrier’s DNA.

Millennials will constitute a significant chunk of the insurance market for the next few decades, and how they engage and make decisions differs from previous generations.

There wasn’t much discussion about car insurance at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting this year, but when the subject came up, Warren Buffett acknowledged the continued dominance of a competitor, a mutual assurance.

AXA shareholders approved all resolutions submitted to them by the board of directors at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting Thursday.

Elon Musk trumpeted Tesla’s early inroads into automotive insurance last week. Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate owns Geico, has cast serious doubt on whether Tesla and other automakers can break into the industry and turn a profit.

Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich) has selected 12 startups to collaborate on novel ways to serve customers, create more frequent meaningful touchpoints with them, and challenge the boundaries of insurance.

It’s not hard to understand and forecast why usage based insurance (UBI) — otherwise known as behaviour-based insurance or pay-as-you-drive (PAYD) — is becoming popular among North American drivers and rest of the world.

Nowhere is the insurance gap more pressing than in the case of flood insurance.

Tesla is “trying to turn a nightmare into a dream with Tesla Insurance,” chief executive Elon Musk said Wednesday.

Harsh market conditions, innovative entrants, and demanding clients are a few forces driving transformation in the insurance industry, but every challenge presents an opportunity.

What makes a true digital payment experience in insurance? Although the past few years have been characterized by rapid digital payment options, the real game-changer has been the focus of market leaders to embrace the transformation of the actual payment experience – both for premium and claim payments.