The Insurance Development Forum (IDF), a public/private partnership led by the insurance and reinsurance industry, has called for greater use of technology to close the global protection gap.
The global protection gap (disparity between economic and insured losses post-event) is staggering and growing, and exists in both developed and developing parts of the world.
Generally, the lack of insurance penetration globally is seen as a huge opportunity for insurers and reinsurers to innovate and develop effective and affordable solutions that meet the very real and urgent protection needs of individuals, from all corners of the world.
In a recently published paper, the IDF has said that technology is a potential game changer in the efforts to close the protection gap, but warns that re/insurance sector as well as stakeholders must take advantage of advancements and calls for laws and regulations to keep pace with change.
The paper, titled How Technology Can Help Bridge the Protection Gap, explores innovations and advancements in data collection, data analytics, new services and products and digitisation, and considers these while analysing the legal, regulatory, and public policy challenges ahead.
Secretary General of the IDF, Ekhosuehi Iyahen, said: “As the protection gap continues to grow and climate change intensifies, this poses a significant threat to livelihoods and global prosperity. It is imperative to find effective ways to protect populations, public assets and economies against natural catastrophes. Pioneering new technologies can enable better and faster ways to better understand, manage and transfer risk and thereby increase countries’ resilience, yet this technological change is advancing at an exponential rate and laws, regulation, policy and regulatory architecture are struggling to keep pace.
“We have issued this paper to encourage swift action to enable the use of new technologies to address this challenge and increase resilience.”
