The leaders of Insurtech UK, the London Market Group, the Association of British Insurers, the Managing General Agents’ Association, the Lloyd’s Market Association and the London & International Insurance Brokers’ Association, have co-signed a letter to economic secretary John Glen, to back a funding application from Innovate UK’s Next Generation Services.
Innovate UK is a non-departmental public body with a mission to drive productivity and economic growth by supporting business development.
Its Next Generation Services programme, which has issued £3.1bn in grants through 2020 and 2021, is run out of the UK Research and Innovation Centre.
With extra funding, the trade bodies state in the letter that the UK has emerged as a global leader in the promotion and application of technological solutions into the insurance value chain.
They explain to the Treasury that the need for these solutions will become “even more urgent in the years ahead”, as more complex risks such as climate change emerge.
The letter also argued that many longstanding industry challenges could be addressed with the new funding, while supporting wider government objectives to drive global competitiveness through financial services innovation.
The letter said the issues could be addressed both through incumbent markets and through the burgeoning InsurTech sector.
The trade bodies noted that innovation in the sector could help to improve productivity and customer experience, as well as aid efforts to close the protection gap and accelerate digital adoption.
“Beyond industry specific challenges, insurance innovation can also become a key part of the government’s objective to see financial services innovation as a driver of the UK’s global competitiveness,” the letter added.
The letter is one of the London Market Group’s activities to improve the competitiveness of the London market.
With Sean McGovern, CEO, UK and Lloyd’s at Axa XL, the trade body has been meeting with the country’s most senior business advisers at number 10, chief Brexit negotiator Lord Frost, economic secretary to the Treasury and City minister John Glen, and the Prudential Regulation Authority, to push this agenda forward.
