Insurance organisations need to begin to integrate tools other than robotics process automation (RPA) when it comes to differentiating themselves from competitors in smart automation, according to IAG automation evangelist Probir Dutt.
Publicly listed Nitol Insurance has introduced a car insurance policy that can be bought online, the first such product in Bangladesh.
The Cambodian insurance industry is expected to see gross premiums surge by around 30% to about $260m this year from $196.4m last year, the Ministry of Economy and Finance said.
The Hong Kong Insurance Authority (IA) has delegated its inspection and investigation powers over insurance-related businesses of banks and other financial institutions to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).
State-owned insurers are expected to require more capital once the insurance sector moves to a risk-based solvency regime that could commence in April 2021.
The government has said that it is not in a hurry to form a state owned insurance holding group.
The number of insurance policies at Japan Post Insurance sold inappropriately has increased from an initial estimate of 93,000 to at least 183,000.
The Finance Ministry (MoF) has said that the mySalam scheme is a non-profit health insurance scheme which will not benefit any private insurance company.
The number of Kiwis who feel that climate change is important to them personally has grown to 79% now, from 72% last year, according to a survey commissioned by insurer IAG New Zealand.
The Department of Health (DOH) declared a national dengue epidemic on 6 August following a meeting with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.
Major non-life insurers are found to have increased marketing fees to boost market capitalisation, raising concerns that consumers will end up shouldering the costs in the form of increased premiums.
New players in the Singapore insurance industry have seen unparalleled growth, an anomaly for insurance markets where large, domestic players typically squeeze out new entrants.
Cathay Financial Holding is planning a rights issue to raise NT$20bn ($638m) amid a rapidly changing financial market. The rights issue is expected to be completed by mid-December at the earliest.
The Office of the Insurance Commission (OIC) has held a meeting with the insurance industry to revamp the process for the approval of insurance products and to improve the standard health insurance contract.
The insurance industry in Vietnam will continue to maintain its high growth momentum for the rest of this year, and insurers will continue to expand their networks as well as R&D efforts to offer products that meet the increasingly diverse needs of customers, according to Vietnam Insurance Association general secretary Bui Gia Anh.
China
The profits of the 28 foreign-owned life insurers in China made aggregate profits in 2018 that were five times those obtained for 2016, according to an analysis by Securities Daily.
In the first half of the year, the combined premium income of the three giants of property insurance was CNY434.4bn ($61.6bn), with an average growth rate of 12.9%, which was 1.58 percentage points higher than the industry average.
Around 60% of consumers in mainland China prefer to engage with their life insurers on digital channels over physical ones, according to data released by market research firm Forrester.
Global
According to figures from Marsh, global commercial insurance prices rose by 6% in Q2 of 2019, almost double the increase witnessed in Q1. This represents the largest increase in the Marsh Global Insurance Market Index since its inception in 2012.
A report by Clyde & Co has found that the level of activity in insurance M&A has been on a steady rise. The firm’s Insurance Growth Report shows there were 222 completed M&A deals worldwide in the first half of 2019 up from 196 in the second half of 2018. This represents a 13% increase in deals – the highest increase in the volume of transactions since the first half of 2015. The figure also represents the fourth consecutive six-month period of M&A growth.
Risk
Rating agency Standard & Poor’s says it is inevitable that insurance and reinsurance firms will look to both the government and capital markets to help in boosting available cyber risk capacity. It says that if a prudent approach to underwriting and accumulation management isn’t followed, the economic loss potential associated with cyber risks will be enormous.