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6th January 2021

2021-A year of change and opportunity?
Opinion

After an unprecedented 2020, Newslink is being positive about the potential for 2021.
The pandemic is still with us, hopefully only for a few months more-it is one of those rare events that has impacted lives and economies worldwide.
Looking on the brighter side, it has also been the catalyst for changing the ways we might work in the future, and escalated digitisation and “virtual” for one to one contact, meetings, and events/conferences.
The insurance markets need to respond particularly over clarity of wordings, and building trust and loyalty across personal and commercial lines. We could also see additional collaboration between the market and Government, maybe on a similar basis to Pool Re in the UK.
The London Market will have global opportunities to expand markets as the UK develops many new trade agreements post BREXIT. Improving processes has been a long term struggle for the London Market but latterly, helped ironically by the pandemic crisis, it is moving at a faster pace. The London Market is also responding to the newer growth markets such as cyber and developing other creative coverages.
Technology suppliers are adapting speedily to a cloud-based environment and are partnering with niche InsurTech providers from underwriting to claims, with some insurers and reinsurers, including Lloyd’s, taking an active part. With more distributed working and cloud development, security will be a key issue for all. The increasing use of artificial intelligence and machine learning will continue to enable more sophisticated analytics resulting in improved risk identification, mitigation, and management, flexible predictive underwriting, speedier claims settlement, and more effective customer service generally.
As in insurance, banking is experiencing a sea change as more services become online and instant, with FinTechs playing a major part in the move to Open Banking-there is a major reduction in the use of coin and notes, and the rise of cryptocurrency could in the longer term result in a widespread digital solution.
On investment issues, tinkering with Solvency II is continuing, but the major pressure on all Financial Services suppliers is to reduce investment in fossil fuels in favour of climate-friendly developments.
Insurance Newslink is entering its 28th year of selecting and linking strategic market, technology, and regulatory news into our Self-Service Global Trends Research Database-containing more than 53,000 insurance articles and 34,000 covering banking.
Best Wishes for potentially a better year ahead as vaccine development provides a light at hopefully the end of the tunnel.