Lead Forensics

Blogs

Innovation and Insurtech on an island in the sun

05.11.17 John Racher

This week I will be heading to Bermuda to attend a new insurance industry event highlighting innovation on the Island.

Global Re’s Innovation and InsurTech conference will examine disruptive global technology trends and their effect on the evolution of the insurance and reinsurance markets, but I am particularly interested in seeing Bermuda contribute to the conversation around innovation in insurtech and what opportunities it can bring to the Island.

Bermuda as a jurisdiction has always worked hard to keep in touch with market changes in the sector, while at the same time keeping it real in terms of legislation and regulation. As a result, the Island has often been at the forefront of many innovations – for example, captives, alternative risk transfer and more recently the global boom in insurance-linked securities (ILS). News of several large investments into the insurtech space from Bermuda has already started hitting the headlines, and with the Island’s history of embracing change and shifts in the way the reinsurance sector operates, it will be exciting to hear more about the developments being made in insurtech. I’m particularly looking forward to hearing from Kathleen Reardon, Chief Executive of Hamilton Insurance Group – a company known for leveraging data science and technology to deliver clients and shareholder value.

Needless to say, the conference’s focus on technology and its potential to transform underwriting aligns with NIIT Insurance Technology’s strategy to utilise the latest technologies to help underwriters make better decisions. Part of our role in the market is to help insurers and reinsurers make sense of the digital era when disruptive technology is changing traditional business models. Therefore, I’m looking forward to finding out what new innovations are being bought to market to help analyse and assess risk. I’ve said before that insurtech as an innovation has the potential to completely reshape how business is transacted in the future – but via collaboration. I believe there is a unique opportunity for both the reinsurance and tech industries to co-operate and collaborate for corporate growth.

I’m very much looking forward to hearing the views and opinions of the conference and how it sees the resurgence on insurtech impacting business on the island.