Happy New Year.
It’s always a feeling of joy as one cherishes the start of a new year with great promises of better things to come. We at Asia Insurance Review with 25 years of serving the insurance industry in Asia, bring you great tidings for 2016, no matter what the doomsayers or geo-political analysts or cyber-phobes say.
There is much value to uncover in Asia as the region rides the wave of growth, consumerism, rapid infrastructural development and the newly launched Asean Economic Community with a market of 620 million and a combined GDP of US$2.5 trillion.
Looking back, 2015 was a tough and unsettling ride. It was a volatile year with several unpredicted events hitting the industry hard, including the rise in natural and man-made disasters. Asia, once again, bore the costliest man-made disaster in the world with the Tianjin explosion estimated at $3.25 billion accounting for almost 50% of global losses. Then there was the fragile investment environment with lots of grief and anxiety and nervy investors depressing markets further. The M&A wave reigned with the rush to get bigger despite the other fear of being too big to succeed being raised. The one constant in 2015 was the rise of regulations adding spark or sparkle to the business as our cover story reflects.
So in 2016, now that the renewals are over with signs of price dives bottoming out, things can only get better. Read our Cover Story where we bring you the hopes and strategic focus of some of the leaders in the market and a timely reminder by our Lifetime Achievement Awardee to invest in technology to unleash the forces within.
2016 will be the year that technology takes its rightful premium spot in insurance, a business that is information-sensitive and information-intensive. And with the rave on Big Data and data-driven underwriting and the “analytical” underwriter, we kick off January with our first-ever Asia Insurance on Big Data and Analytics with the theme of “Data-driven business growth and underwriting”. It is a must-attend conference for all who fear data or who are not mining their data effectively.
With the innovative disruptions in the market, our CEO Summit this year in Hong Kong in February will have the theme of “Being a Smart Insurer. The next Uber?” and re-imagining the insurance business. And later in April, we will host an Innovation Summit to bring together the meaning of innovative drivers in the market – be it innovation in processes, products and systems or claims management – to find sure winners.
Our traditional offering for January is the Country Profile on India, a market whose dynamism is still breath-taking even after 15 years of being open. There are still great expectations in insurance and reinsurance despite the control conundrum. And more investors are coming. As we go to print, there are also some 500 delegates registered with still a month to go for the 9th India Rendezvous which kickstarts the Indian renewal season.
In this New Year issue, we modestly bring some changes in design to make it easier on tired eyes, and with life being so good, we are devoting more coverage to life and health matters where much is happening. In that context, I recommend a revisit to the great ideas raised at the PIC in Manila in December. Despite already being a conference junkie, I still swooned over the sheer richness of the ideas raised in life. Life is good.
In that same spirit, we are launching a separate “Asia Trusted Advisers” Awards Series in the middle of the year to salute the unsung heroes of the life business who bring the message of protection and trust to the man in the street with eyes glued on his digital device.
I take this opportunity to wish you the very best as we leap into this New Year with an extra day too. Remember to make resolutions and keep track.
Sivam Subramaniam
Editor-in-Chief
Asia Insurance Review