Dear Dave, It\u2019s great to hear from you again. I\u2019m sorry to hear that banking is no fun anymore. But I suppose that shouldn\u2019t be a surprise to anyone after everything that happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m getting in touch because I think you should be having a look at insurance with fresh eyes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You left 20 years ago and at the time you were right to do so. It was obvious to all of us at the firm that someone of your talents and ambitions had to go off and seek fame and fortune in a more dynamic financial services sector. We had no way of keeping you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You bankers had cracked it and were light years ahead, securitising everything that moved and deploying the white heat of technology to bring major efficiencies<\/a> and improved returns on investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In comparison we in insuranceland were the laggards. We were clinging to our long lunches like shipwrecked mariners and our slipcases were the life buoys. Expenses had hardly budged and margins were anaemic at best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But seriously, since you left so much has changed, I wouldn\u2019t know where to start. And the best part is that the real changes are only just beginning to kick in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now the digital foundations are laid they\u2019re going to transform everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Take my job. I can now see my global property portfolio on a big digital map and drill down into it whenever I like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A quick click and I can take a look at the physical stuff that my underwriters have insured, or have quoted or are targeting. I can then run these physical assets against all the tools I have got \u2013 risk scoring<\/a> for wind, fire, flood, political violence, terrorism \u2013 you name it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But then I can zoom back out when I need to show the big picture in the aggregate. I can lay it all out on a dashboard which I can configure however I want.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the CEO or CFO would like a look I can just show them the big picture stuff that matters to them \u2013 remember \u2018X\u2019 never really was one for getting lost in the weeds when it came to detail? Well, that hasn\u2019t changed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Or if compliance and risk want a report I can just run that off for them \u2013 or even better, when they get trained up on the system they can run the report off for themselves!<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it doesn\u2019t even begin to stop there. All this stuff can go into what they are now calling a financial engine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This even looks at the individual policy wordings and conditions and takes my reinsurance into account. I know! James Bond stuff!<\/p>\n\n\n\n So when I\u2019m looking at flood I\u2019m looking at the real net impact of flood on me, including all the flood sub-limits I have and adding in the effects all the fac and treaty protections I have in place, policy by policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some of the stuff I can do now just blows my mind \u2013 it would have taken us a whole year to do some of this back in the dark old days of paper. To be honest, we wouldn\u2019t even have attempted it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These days I can see exactly what side of the street we are on \u2013 and as you know that can make all the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And remember what a faff renewals used to be? Pulling out dusty files and loss records, trying to see if what was being presented stacked up with the material info that had been used the year before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Half the time it was hard to recognise the new proposed deal, or large chunks of information were inconsistent or even missing entirely. Today these are being visualised for me on screen and artificial intelligence (AI) is sniffing out any anomalies and flagging them up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Live loss data is now available to me \u2013 once again I can map this onto my portfolio and see it as it happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n