Emerging risks are an opportunity for brokers
In the ‘millionaires’ playground’ of Monte Carlo there is currently a gathering of some of the world’s major reinsurance professionals. A keynote speech at the PwC breakfast this morning from the CEO of Marsh & McLennan Companies was called “Fulfilling our purpose in the age of risk and uncertainty”. In it, Dan Glasser told the audience that the industry needs to focus on broader and more strategic relationships with greater transparency, trust, and certainty; and that clients, brokers, insurers and reinsurers should work together to develop products for emerging, less tangible, risks. He highlighted the many emerging risks including cyber attack, water and food shortages and weather incidents and said that these risks present a challenge to insurance professionals: “Competition in our industry should be based on what’s most important to the vast majority of our clients: breadth of products, contract certainty, claims performance, service, responsiveness, and yes, price. My advice is to think of emerging risk as an opportunity for all of us in the risk business to use our collective imagination as a preview of our industry’s upcoming innovative solutions.”
Privacy Commissioner raises concern over mobile apps
As mobile apps explode in popularity, many of them are seeking access to large amounts of personal information without adequately explaining how that information is being used, participants of the second annual Global Privacy Enforcement Network (GPEN) Privacy Sweep found. Daniel Therrien, Privacy Commissioner of Canada says that while they have not found evidence of apps asking for information that was not connected to its function, there is concern about the request for access to location, contacts and photographs without properly explaining why it’s required. The GPEN sweep found that only 28 per cent of apps requesting access to personal data gave clear explanations as to why and set out how the information would be used. More than a quarter offered no privacy policy at all. With concern being raised by some in the cyber-security space that mobile apps could be a weakness in businesses’ infrastructures, especially in those organisations that allow employees to use their own devices, it would seem of paramount importance to ensure that this popular area of online use has tight safeguards against misuse of personal data.
Are ‘bread funds’ a threat to income protection insurance?
A co-op approach to income protection is seeing growth in Europe. The model is fairly simple; self-employed individuals pay into the scheme and if any of the members are taken ill and unable to work they are able to claim from the group’s funds. It has become very popular in Holland and is about to launch in the UK. While there is a risk that if multiple members of a group got sick at the same time, the funds would be inadequate, is this a sign of consumers choosing to find alternatives to traditional insurance products? The biggest selling point to this scheme over an insurance policy seems to be the ability to take back what you’ve paid in (or at least what’s left of it) if you decide to leave the scheme. Schemes like this are likely to be of interest to a minority but many will surely prefer the backing of a professional insurance policy backed by a regulated insurer. Read the full story.
