Global insurance summit: keeping up the momentum is key challenge

At the two-day meeting, there was a clear consensus among the 150 industry representatives and 50 regulators that insurance plays an important social role in preventing and managing new risks. The participants also agreed that clear, fair and stable legal and regulatory frameworks are key to promote long-term and sustainable investments, particularly across borders.

At the same time, there was concern that the shared agenda could be disrupted by geopolitical trends that threaten to reduce convergence at a global level in favor of local or regional solutions.

Zurich was represented at the summit in Bariloche, Argentina – amid the lakes, forests and snowy peaks of the Andes – by Latin America CEO Claudia Dill; Group Head of Communication & Public Affairs Francis Bouchard; and CEO Argentina Fabio Rossi. Claudia spoke in a panel discussion on Facing Digital Disruption and Francis was a panelist in a discussion on Globalizing Businesses, where he urged the industry to be more confident about its contribution to society.

“Too often we focus on us,” Francis told participants. “We should focus on our social and economic role as insurers, reinsurers and regulators; on issues that are broader and with bigger impact on society at large.”

Key takeaways from the Facing Digital Disruption panel:

• Digital disruption comes from the outside. From the customer. From the way he/she connects with brands, companies, services.
• We need to recognize this as an industry and stop having inward looking discussions.
• Conceptually speaking, we should move from Protection to Prevention, from Product to Customer, from Operations to Services.
• Create the framework for the customer to develop an emotional connection with the brand and the insurer and thus start looking at insurance as an asset, an investment rather than an expense.
• There’s a clear need to achieve a better balance between having a friendlier legal framework to promote new ideas (like InsureTechs) with the need to ensure that new players/ideas follow regulations and that customers’ rights are always protected.
• Incumbents and newcomers should both play by the same rules.

Key takeaways from the Globalizing Businesses panel:

• The process of opening markets should be organized by a stable legal framework that ensures local knowledge and jobs are preserved. Balancing global and local expertise is best.
• 44 jurisdictions still have significant barriers to cross-border business. Their removal benefits local insurance markets by increasing the choices customers have to manage risks.
• Insurance is recognized as having a major role in facilitating international trade and foreign direct investment, even at the inflection point we have reached with the global trading system.
• The companies driving international trade are multinational firms that rely on international programs to drive a consistent and holistic approach to managing their risks.
• The dual regulatory paradigms of location-based principles versus activity-based principles create wide discrepancies in the efficiency and cost of these programs.
• Regulators should recognize the role international programs play in backstopping the companies driving trade and ensure a more efficient approach to regulation of such programs.
• Regulators should keep it SIMPLE.