But technology is not only shaping how the end-customer interacts with carriers and brokers, it is also transforming the back office by streamlining functions and processing data far more quickly than before.
This was just one of the topics discussed during a roundtable in Bermuda, hosted by The Insurance Insider in partnership with software specialist Phinsys.
For those who work in the (re)insurance industry, the embracing of technology has been a welcome development – market professionals now have far easier access to high quality data than in the past. But the industry still has some catching up to do, especially when compared with the banking industry which has been embracing new technologies for decades.
The (re)insurance market is well aware that calculating expected losses takes time, and even then exposure estimates are notoriously fluid – initial numbers issued are rarely accurate and can shift significantly as time progresses.
That is in stark contrast to the banking community which expects as close to real-time updates as possible on its investments and risk exposure.
One interesting dynamic is in play in the areas of the market where the banking and (re)insurance industries collide, for example in the ILS space. Are investors getting the up-to-the-moment data and information they need, or is there still a time lag? If so, is that stymying the growth of the ILS space?
Aside from issues around reporting, the roundtable participants considered what the (re)insurance company of the future will look like. There has been considerable industry talk about matching the right capital with the right risk, and some roundtable participants felt that the (re)insurance carrier of the future would have a dedicated platform that can tap into the ILS market.
As the discussion took place in Bermuda, it was only fitting that the topic of the island’s position in the global (re)insurance landscape was also considered. Bermuda remains the pre-eminent jurisdiction for ILS, but its hold on the crown is under threat from domiciles such as London and Singapore, to name but two.
As such, participants agreed that Bermuda could not be complacent and there was an acknowledgement that the moves being made by the island’s regulator are a step in the right direction towards it retaining its position of strength in the global (re)insurance industry.
To view the Bermuda (Re)insurance Roundtable 2019, please click here.
Christopher Munro, Associate Editor, The Insurance Insider