The impacts of COVID-19 on the insurance industry are immediately pressing, and come with unclear longer-term repercussions.
Insurers are dealing with unprecedented pressures from every angle; looking after customers and partners is a clear priority, as is supporting staff through both remote-working and dramatic changes to working and personal lives. Insurers are understandably reprioritising within their businesses, but in these challenging times, there may exist the temptation to pull support from mid-term and long-term opportunities, such as innovation and insurtech
Against this backdrop two leading insurtech bodies have come together to issue a call for insurance leaders to protect innovation and funding for insurtech.
Tech Nation’s Insurtech Board, a HM Treasury funded initiative, and trade association Insurtech UK, have issued an ‘Innovation Statement’ that calls for leaders in the UK insurance sector to commit to supporting:
- the active exploration of strategic partnerships with insurtechs
- mutual collaboration between insurtechs firms and insurers, to develop initial concepts into products that will ultimately better serve customers
- investment into new and existing initiatives, via both traditional and corporate Venture Capital
communication between firms, to ensure that it is clear and timely, and as transparent as possible with respect to the decision-making processes around engagement, funding, and ongoing support
Ed Leon Klinger, CEO of Flock and Chairman of the Insurtech Board said:
“Innovation in the UK insurance sector depends heavily on the leadership of our major insurers. Through good times and bad, insurtech has become a critical part of the UK’s thriving insurance ecosystem. Embracing the innovation that insurtech brings to the sector will be crucial in ensuring that the UK remains a global insurance leader and that customers get the very best outcomes. We’re calling on insurance leaders to protect the UK’s world-leading insurance sector, by committing to support insurtech through these challenging times.”