Insurer Trends Center on Technology

Volatile markets, greater regulatory scrutiny and continuing technological advancement are forcing insurers to “increase their focus on controlling liability risks and improving transparency and stakeholder confidence,” according to Don Canning, vice president of insurance for SunGard, a software and technology services company.

This is the driving force between many of what SunGard recently identified as the “Ten Insurance Risk Trends in North America.” Given the source, it is no surprise that improving technology to address new risks features prominently on the list, which stresses insurers’ “need for data quality,” “faster, more efficient modeling,” “platforms that can support risk visibility” across borders, “expanded service capabilities” and “more frequent risk reporting.”

The company views insurers’ wealth of information as arguably their greatest asset for pricing risk more accurately and adjusting risk appetite. And the easier it is to access and analyze this data, the more an insurer can turn it into a competitive advantage.

“U.S. carriers are looking to centralize information from disparate and traditionally separate valuation and projection modeling systems to achieve consistent views of risk,” states the report. It is this integration of information into a “Big Data” warehouse that is increasingly allowing insurers to make better risk decisions.