Resilience to move centre stage in 2018

Clyde & Co has predicted that re/insurers will wake up to the potential that lies in focusing on resilience and closing the protection gap.

Insurance has always been about building resilience into the economic system and it now has the opportunity to make a real impact on the lives of the world’s most disadvantaged, according to Simon Konsta, senior partner at Clyde & Co.

“There is broad support for this: from the industry, under the Insurance Development Forum, through the G7, UN, World Bank and national governments in the UK and Germany particularly,” Konsta wrote.

He stated that technology is the key, providing new ways for structuring and selling insurance, with concepts like parametric insurance starting to gain real traction. These products provide certainty, speed and, importantly, are attractive to governments and NGOs as a way of providing support to whole communities.

Not only does this development give insurance a clear role in providing a social good, he added, but it opens up new and as yet hard-to-reach markets and provides huge growth opportunities in the developing and developed world.

“There are, of course, issues that need to be tackled before any real progress can be made. A lack of knowledge about how these products work, a lack of regulatory and legal certainty and a lack of trust are all hurdles that the industry must overcome. There are many in the industry working to make this a reality, including ourselves. I expect resilience to be a watchword around the industry for some time to come,” wrote Konsta.