Insurance industry viewpoint

In an exclusive blog for youTalk-insurance, Alan O'Loughlin, Director of Analytics and Statistical Modelling, International at LexisNexis Risk Solutions, talks about the missed opportunities for insurers as the new ‘data currency’ gathers pace

So, you are collecting data on your insurance customers and prospects? Brilliant. But what are you doing with it? Is it just sitting there untouched, costing you money to gather and store, without earning its keep by giving back to your business?

Back in the 1980’s I started working in this glorious world of insurance. I still love it! So much has changed and the vast majority of it for the better. I certainly don’t use as much carbon paper as I did back then and I haven’t seen a microfiche for a good few years. The talent joining our industry is awesome. But one thing that always strikes me as not having progressed as much are the presentations brokers make on behalf of clients.

The term ‘Big Data’ has been thrown about for a while, but what does it mean and how does it impact commercial insurance?

“Big Data”, in a nutshell, is the collection of structured and unstructured data and it’s implied that people using it can analyse statistics and derive facts that help make better decisions.

What does this mean for brokers and insurers? 

Brexit chaos – motorways at a standstill - Labour splits – Tories split too, for good measure – urgent climate change issues – EU in financial crisis – productivity down, crime up – storms increase in intensity – terrorism – major flooding events – giant radioactive lizards roaming the home counties...

Disasters (especially fictional ones) come in all shapes and sizes, but they all have something in common: none were anticipated by the people most affected and it almost always comes as an unpleasant surprise.

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.