AUGUST | FiDA and open insurance | AI & consumer protection | Wellness data sharing | Emerging Risks | 150 World’s Top InsurTech Companies

Before we dive into the main InsurTech highlights from August, I have some personal news to share.

As of August 31st, I have concluded my work at EIOPA. You can read more about my reasons for leaving and the next steps here.

But don’t worry—I'll continue curating the newsletter! To allow more flexibility in design and to make it more user-friendly, I've set up a separate domain for the newsletter, which you can find here.

So, here’s a small request: If you've enjoyed reading the newsletter here, please also sign up for the new version here.

Once you submit your email, you’ll receive a confirmation message (it sometimes lands in the junk folder, so check there just in case). If you encounter any issues during sign-up or have doubts about whether it was successful, feel free to reach out to me.

The newsletter is hosted on the Ghost platform, which, after detailed research, I found to be the safest, most user-friendly, and minimalistic by design. It is operated as a non-profit and open-source platform, which aligns well with my values.

I promise to continue curating it thoughtfully, keeping both regulators/policymakers and industry/innovators in mind.

In the medium term, I'll continue duplicating the newsletter here, but my goal is to eventually transition fully to the new domain.

Thank you for your support!

Now, let’s jump into the highlights.

Cyber Risks Associated with Generative Artificial Intelligence

Interested in cyber risks associated with Generative Artificial Intelligence?

This Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) paper aims to raise financial institutions’ awareness by providing an overview of key cyber threats arising from GenAI, the risk implications, and some of the mitigation measures that could be taken to address the risks.

Read more here.

Gallagher Re Global InsurTech Report Q2 2024

The 2024 series of Global InsurTech Report by Gallagher Re will examine the role of Artificial Intelligence in insurance.

The second report for Q2 is out now and will focus on "risk" (pricing, underwriting and portfolio management/optimization).

Read more here.

Stepping Up Venture Capital to Finance Innovation in Europe

How Europe can better support Venture Capital to boost growth and productivity and what is the role of insurance and pensions sector here?

IMF recent paper states that a failure to sufficiently develop innovative startups into “superstar” firms is one of the reasons for the EU poor productivity growth.

The paper argues that measures to strengthen the EU’s venture capital markets and remove cross-border financial frictions to pension funds and insurers investing in venture capital could increase the flow of funding to promising startups and fuel productivity gains.

For the rest of the practical reform proposals both at the national level and to common EU policies see full paper below.

Read more here.

Commercializing Open Finance

This Visa Consulting & Analytics (VCA) report highlights open finance state of play, the direction of travel, best practices from around the world, and some considerations for the regulatory community.

Read more here.

World Intangible Investment Highlights

The first-ever World Intangible Investment Highlights demonstrates how intangible assets are an increasingly important driver for innovation and economic growth in a globalized knowledge economy.

Investment in intangible assets like brands, designs, data, new financial products and software has grown three times faster over the past 15 years than investment in physical assets.

I personally think these findings are also important for insurance industry to keep in mind.

Read more here.

Demographics: an Analysis of their Impact on Insurance Activity

Major demographic trends and changes in the population structure are key aspects in the strategic design and performance of the insurance sector at a global level.

1. Birth rates
2. Mortality rates
3. Life expectancy
4. Migratory movements

This report studies these demographic factors and their economic impact in the main regions of the world, as well as for a group of eight specific countries.

Again, a bit different type of report I usually share here with you but I personally think these trends are important to consider for insurance innovators.

Read more here.

Emerging Risks Initiative

The CRO Forum Emerging Risk Initiative continually scans the horizon to identify and communicate emerging risks facing the insurance industry which are expected to have a significant impact on the insurance sector within 1 to 10 years.

Emerging Risks are risks which may newly develop or which already exist and are continuously evolving.

They are characterised by a high degree of uncertainty in terms of impacts and likelihood and may have a substantial potential impact on underwriting, investments and/or operations of an insurance company.

Read more here.

150 World’s Top InsurTech Companies 2024

Statista and CNBC have mapped 150 top InsurTech companies.

Read more here.

Skills for International Financial Services

The skills gap in FinTech and InsurTech is a real problem.

Here is another recent view from Ireland's perspective. But the problem, of course, is universal.

The report highlights skills gap in areas such as IT, digital and data analytics skills, including in crypto and blockchain, cybersecurity, machine learning and AI, risk and compliance.

Read more here.

More Americans say yes to sharing wellness data

According to the 2024 Insurance Barometer Study by LIMRA and Life Happens, more Americans say they would participate in a life insurance wellness program than in previous years. These programs involve consumers exchanging health or activity data for incentives such discounts on premiums or products.

The percentage of willing Americans increased 10 points over the past eight years, from 30% in 2016 to 40% in 2024.

Read more here.

Consumer Protection in respect of Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence

Hong Kong Monetary Authority has published a set of guiding principles in respect of use of generative artificial intelligence in customer-facing applications from consumer protection perspective.

Read more here.

FiDA: is the EU prepared to move from Open Banking to Open Finance?

This recent note aims to understand the rationale behind the FiDA proposal and its main features, as well as assessing the Commission’s original proposal and its expected interaction with other pieces of legislation.

Read more here.