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Reinsurance industry needs to be ready to confront challenges of a new decade AN INABILITY to deploy new technologies and a lack of readiness to confront structural change top the list of risks facing the global reinsurance industry. This comes from a biannual risk report by PwC. Entitled Reinsurance Banana Skins 2019, it reveals fears that the industry is grappling with legacy IT systems as new data sources proliferate. Another major concern, listed as second in importance, is cyber risk, because of the unknown liabilities of underwriting cyber policies, and the threat of cyberattacks against insurance companies. Closely linked to these worries, the report notes, is the industry’s concern around change
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Groundbreaking advances in risk analytics management. This reflects worries about insurance markets being upended by new technologies, and radical shifts in customer expectations. Technology has opened-up a proliferation of data from new sources — such as sensors and Internet of Things connectivity
— while ushering-in groundbreaking advances in risk analytics. The results are revolutionising risk evaluation and prevention. The big risk for reinsurers was being left behind as the industry transforms, says Arthur Wightman, territory leader of PwC Bermuda, and insurance leader of PwC in the Caribbean. In this scenario, the front-runners recognise that talent and access to data are as important as the systems themselves in navigating change. The inclusion of cyber risk so high on the list of banana skins reflects the accumulation of exposures and risk of unforeseen losses in portfolios on one hand, and the potential vulnerabilities
No slip-ups... The Reinsurance Banana Skins report reveals fears about cyber attacks
