Click here to download the Monte Carlo 2022 - Innovation Roundtable
We at Insurance Insider have hosted our innovation roundtable for several years now at the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous, down on the Cote d’Azur.
I look forward to it every year as an opportunity to hear directly from those in the market who are thinking past the here and now, and ahead to the future.
It is also usually a pretty heated discussion with some strong opinions!
This year – the first one back after a two-year pandemic hiatus – was no different, and there was plenty of great discussion and visionary ideas pitched during our session.
Our participants questioned whether there were cultural hurdles to innovation, and whether a change of mindset was needed across the market in order to trigger new ideas.
Will there be a disruptor from outside the industry which changes the way it works forever? Parallels were drawn with the Bloomberg Terminal, or the iPhone.
We even got down to talk of whether reinsurance as a product would ever be commoditized, and how you innovate in a product class which is essentially capital, in its purest form.
But every year, the discussion always boils down to one thing – data.
And this year was no different.
As we all know, the (re)insurance industry is a laggard when it comes to how well it leverages the power of data. And again, the conversation highlighted how better data hygiene, better data standardisation and crucially, better data sharing was a vital first step required before the industry can dream of making any quantum leaps in terms of innovation.
But what will be the trigger for this nirvana of data sharing to happen? Who will be the instigator? And will the benefits be great enough that carriers and brokers alike are willing to give up their IP for the greater good?
Perhaps more importantly – if this doesn’t happen, is the (re)insurance industry destined to move forever at a glacial pace?
I want to thank QBE Re for sponsoring this annual gathering of like-minded, innovation-hungry individuals. It was a challenging and stimulating discussion down on the French Riviera this year – and I hope you enjoy this summary of our conversation.
Catrin Shi,
Editor-in-Chief, Insurance Insider
Click here to download the Monte Carlo 2022 – Innovation Roundtable
