Spotlight Interview with Elena Rasa, Chief Underwriting Officer, Zurich

Intelligent Insurer is delighted to announce that Elena Rasa, Chief Underwriting Officer, Zurich, has confirmed she’ll be speaking at Commercial Lines Innovation Europe (October 4–5, London). She’ll join our panel discussion exploring the pivotal macroeconomic trends impacting insurance.

We caught up with Rasa to learn more about her predictions for the commercial insurance market and find out why she is so passionate about digital transformation for commercial lines.

As you look to the remainder of 2022, what do you foresee as your biggest challenge for commercial insurance, and why??

Developing innovative products that meet clients’ evolving exposures, mainly due to the fact that business is going to great lengths to ensure fast, effective consumer-focused experiences. In addition to this, insurance companies need to raise awareness with regard to a variety of triggers (primarily inflation), especially in those lines of business where hardening is still not there. This means new actions to be deployed in the market.

At Commercial Lines Innovation Europe you have chosen to speak about the macroeconomic trends transforming risk profiles. Why is this topic important to you?

It is the topic for the years ahead and understanding how the insurance market is preparing for all those challenges is crucial in order to meet expectations—after all, insurance is an important social function.

What’s the one thing commercial insurers should do to stay relevant?

Commercial insurers should go towards a data-driven approach, investing in technology, data and digitisation. The final scope is to become more central in the lives of clients, increasing direct exposure with them (not only through intermediaries), with the aim of making them aware of current and growing risks.

What do you see as the biggest opportunity in commercial insurance over the next 12 months?

Following an unprecedented crisis due to the pandemic, Italy’s recovery and resilience plan (PNRR) responds to the urgent need of fostering a strong recovery and making Italy future-ready and will affect surety, engineering lines and PI. In addition to this, exploring opportunities for mitigating the impact of emerging risks (eg, nat cats and climate change) for customers and, as a consequence, for insurers and reinsurers.

Which technologies do you anticipate as being most transformative for the commercial market?

Artificial intelligence will make it possible to offer personalised products in near-real time, based on data, whether it’s generated by consumers and their digital touchpoints, or third parties, or even government agencies. Extended internet of things and data-sharing is another area to explore.

Don’t miss Elena Rasa, Chief Underwriting Officer, Zurich at our upcoming Commercial Lines Innovation Europe Conference (October 4–5, London). She’ll join 30+ speakers from leading European insurers as they unpack the key macroeconomic trends transforming risk profiles in the insurance industry. Take a look at the full agenda and speaker line-up here.

Seats for this event will be limited. So don’t delay, register early and save as much as ￡300 on your delegate ticket with our super early bird booking special. Click here to register now.