Motor insurance takes up more than half the premium pie in most markets. The slew of developments in the motor sector in the past year has seen its status elevated from a “bread and butter” insurance pillar to an exciting new world of opportunities which will only leave the traditional insurer behind.
Aon has predicted that premiums for the US auto insurers may drop more than 40% once autonomous cars become the norm. Though the infrastructure varies from state to state across Asia, how governments and insurers in this region react and brace themselves for this disruption remains to be seen.
Autonomous vehicles and ride-hailing services
Even as Asia, or the world, questions whether it is ready to leave the driver’s seat empty, scrutiny is increasing for ride-hailing services like Uber and Grab. In the midst of this, insurers like AXA have launched new products for this sector, collaborating with Grab.
Fraud a growing concern in most Asian markets
As issues surrounding motor grow in complexity, claims challenges will develop in tandem. Vehicle insurance fraud reaches more than PHP1 billion (US$20 million) in the Philippines a year, said the Philippine Insurers and Reinsurers Association in 2016, with fraud accounting for more than 10% of losses in the country. It is also a concern in other Asian markets, including major scams reported in developed markets like Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia in 2016. Even then, the rise of usage-based insurance, telematics and even social media monitoring has proven to be new weaponry for claims investigations.
The myriad of new trends surrounding motor will be discussed at this year’s 5th Asia Motor Insurance & Claims Management Conference, to be held in Manila from 27-28 March 2017. It will bring experts from across the insurance, motor and tech industries to discuss the future of motor insurance, how it will evolve and the perennial challenge of underwriting motor profitably.