Insurance industry viewpoint

In a guest blog for youTalk-insurance Simon McGinn, General Manager, Commercial and Personal at Allianz UK shares his thoughts about 2018 and takes a look at what’s in store for the year ahead

During 2018 we saw another busy period of legislative, political and socio-economic change.  As an industry we needed to respond to major developments which impacted the insurance sector, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD) and the progress of the Civil Liability Bill through Parliament, to name a few.

Let me start by saying I’m embarrassed to be writing this blog in the year 2018.

I was moved to hit the keyboard and write this blog having just read the CII’s report on the UK Insurance Gender Pay Gap that was published last week “UK Insurance Gender Pay Gap 24% - CII calls for action”

Many miles of copy have been written about the disruption that is now starting to impact the insurance industry. Techy types within the sector have even given the technological changes that we are all experiencing its own name ‘INSURTECH’. 

If you would have used this expression ten years ago you might have seen your colleagues speed dialling for the people in white coats to come and take you away, so traditional and dowdy was some of the thinking back then.

If you’ve spent any time on LinkedIn and other social media platforms you may have seen how job titles are evolving. In fields like marketing, management and IT we’re seeing traditional titles like ‘consultant’ and ‘adviser’ make way for a new breed of ninjas, wizards, gurus and rockstars.

Of course, the job market is changing all the time. New jobs and technology emerge to replace older jobs, which is why we don’t see many gas lamp-lighters walking around the streets any more.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into enforcement from May 25th, 2018.  The potential fines that can be levied by GDPR are large numbers. At their extreme they can be as great as €20m or (and this makes it important to companies of all sizes), 4% of global revenue, whichever is the greater.

2017. What a year. As many of those who know me will verify, I prefer to look forward rather than back. But I don’t think any insurance CEO – particularly any motor insurance CEO – can fail to reflect on 2017 without a sense of bewilderment at how things played out in our industry.  The sector is increasingly being challenged by government, regulators and lawmakers. And sometimes it’s easy to overlook the reason why we exist in the first place.

Nigel Evans MP:

Insurers and brokers have a lot on their plate at the moment: Brexit bafflement, Ogden agony, rate reductions and new threats to their business models but everyone from the smallest high street broker to the largest multinational insurer need to know their GDPR subject matter. Failure to plan ahead means you could find the regulator banging loudly on your door followed up by a gaggle of Google search tags that you really don’t want your customers to be reading!

About 18 months ago, I began writing a book about my experiences in the insurance industry.

A couple of years ago an Ernst & Young survey in the UK revealed that just 7% of consumers have "complete trust" in their insurer. It was reported that UK insurance customers were found to hold more trust in the banking sector, despite the severe reputational damage it has suffered over the last seven years, than in their insurance provider.