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Tech company Earnix is holding its annual summit on September 13 and 14 in London.

With the theme “Reimagine Insurance,” Earnix Eˣcelerate 2022 will feature speakers from the likes of RSA, Generali, Munich Re, Ergo, BavariaDirekt, Post Office Insurance, and Deloitte. The agenda revolves around leveraging intelligent insurance operations to address a dynamic landscape.

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Lloyd’s, the world’s leading insurance and reinsurance marketplace, has released its financial results for the first six months of 2022 (H1 2022) – boasting a solid underwriting performance despite a challenging year of natural catastrophes, geopolitical issues, inflation, and other factors.

For the first half of the year, Lloyd’s saw an underwriting profit of £1.2 billion, up from £0.96 billion during the first half of 2021 (H1 2021). It also reported a combined ratio of 91.4% (compared to 92.2% in H1 2021), its strongest combined ratio since 2015.

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Alistair Steward, director at QuestGates, joins IBTV to examine the topic of under-insurance in the UK market. He explains which areas are particularly prone to the issue and what should be taken into account when valuing a property.

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Among those awarded the designation was Colette Crawford, client development executive at Marsh, who said it was “humbling to be named alongside so many accomplished people in the insurance industry”. It was a real surprise but a very welcome one, she said of the designation, and a chance to reflect on her own journey into the profession. 

“My route into insurance was a quite funny one,” she said. “I was at university in Aberdeen, and I was doing a history degree, with Mandarin on the side while working part-time in Tesco as a fishmonger and butcher. I got to my last year and knew I really wanted a graduate job but felt that financial services probably wasn’t going to be available to me because I hadn’t done an economics degree and am not especially good at maths.”

Crawford took quite a scattergun approach to the application process, willing to consider any range of possibilities. When she was invited to interview with Marsh, she said, she undertook a lot of research into the company and the role, speaking with independent brokers and Marsh’s Aberdeen branch to find out more. That was her first real introduction to the world of insurance and it was a markedly positive one – as everybody she spoke with was delighted to provide expertise and insight.

“Looking back, I think the thing that massively cemented that I really wanted the job and made me throw everything at it is that I did what I didn’t do with the other graduate schemes I applied for, and I spoke to people in the industry,” she said. “And I also reached out to a number of people on LinkedIn. And every single one of them was happy to help, whether they worked for Marsh or another broker.”

The process of joining the graduate program was an intensive one, Crawford said, but the more she went through it, the more she realised how much wanted the job. When she was accepted, she moved to Manchester to take up her place and was blown away by how welcoming and kind the team were. After a great first year, she was fortunate enough to go and work for then-corporate CEO Joe Grogan and see how the business worked from the top-down, after experiencing how it worked from the bottom-up.

“It was just utterly fascinating,” she said. “And I think that was the point that really reinforced that insurance was the career I was going to pursue. And it’s been that way ever since.”

Reflecting on her route into insurance, Crawford noted how fortuitous it is that she didn’t allow the idea that her background wasn’t the right fit for financial services to dissuade her from applying. One of the beautiful things about Marsh’s graduate scheme is that there is no stipulation as to what degree you have to do, she said, and she was privileged to work alongside a range of peers who had graduated from degree programmes as diverse as music, geology and Arabic.

“That allows for much broader thinking and a much broader conversation,” she said. “And I think that has been transformative in the industry, to be honest. And it’s not just at Marsh – I know that there are a lot of insurance companies that are diversifying who they’re bringing into the business which is allowing more and different conversations with clients, which is a really good thing to see.”

Read more: ‘Elite Woman’ shares top tips on how to be an effective problem-solver

There are some shared qualities found among successful insurance professionals, Crawford noted, and among those are energy, enthusiasm and a natural affinity for problem-solving. But there’s no one route into insurance, nor one path to take once you become part of the profession. Insurance touches everything, she said, and it’s not limited to any one area or any one geography. A career in insurance offers young people so much opportunity – and so many different roles for them to explore.

“There’s always an opportunity to find something that really taps into your skill set and your interests,” she said. “When I was at university, I thought I’d go on to work in Tesco because I really enjoyed working with the food and beverage sector and understanding how that works. And I’ve been able to transfer that interest into the job I’m doing now, which just allows me to feel like it’s not so much a job at all, as I get up every day and have something different to be looking at – whether it’s looking at what’s on the horizon for retail, or bakeries, or the dairy industry. It just keeps everything interesting. I haven’t been bored yet and I don’t think I ever will be.”

To other young people considering a career in insurance, Crawford advised that they do their research, not least because it will showcase how generous insurance professionals are with their time and expertise. If you aren’t sure about what insurance entails, talk to somebody, she said, and she can guarantee there will be somebody who wants to have that conversation.

When people are passionate about something, the first thing they want to do is share what’s so good about it, she said. And by doing that research, you can get a really clear picture of both the good and challenging elements that the industry has to offer.

“And again, I would say don’t worry about what I used to worry about, which was not having done economics or not being great at maths, because there is a place for everyone in insurance,” she said. “And I think that’s really coming through, especially at Marsh because we have diversified so much which is making this such a wonderful and inclusive place to be.

“So, go and find somewhere that’s going to use your talents and allow you to challenge yourself, that’s my advice.”

Book your tickets now: Women in Insurance UK

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How does the UK’s flood picture compare to five years ago? In this edition of IBTV, Chris Hall, head of marketing at FloodFlash, explains how insurers and brokers can improve their approach to providing suitable coverage, and the role that parametric insurance is likely to play going forward.

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Read more: ABI reveals fraudulent claims figures

Meanwhile, the Insurance Fraud Bureau (IFB) has unveiled a cost-of-living linked anti-fraud campaign, noting it has seen a 17% increase in people being added to the national Insurance Fraud Register (IFR). Thought leadership published by insurance law firm Kennedys highlighted that there are four key drivers behind the link between economic pressures and fraudulent behaviour:

• Incentive/pressure – where need or want drive fraud
• Opportunity – where fraud is possible given the system/process/context
• Rationalisation – where fraudulent behaviour is deemed either worth the risk or justified
• Capacity – where the ability to recognise and the capability to execute fraud come together

Read more: Man purchases wrecked cars to use for bogus insurance claims

Across Insurance Business UK, several notable examples of insurance fraud being committed have been spotlighted while a recently published guide highlighted the most common types of insurance fraud in the UK.

But there’s a fraternal twin to insurance fraud and its deep-rooted relationship to the economy which can often slip under the radar in conversations about mitigating the impacts of a recessionary environment on insureds and insurance businesses alike. Recession-linked crime is a consideration that has puzzled researchers and statisticians for multiple decades – with each dip in the UK’s GDP yielding new insight into whether crime increases or decreases during times of economic turmoil.

News from the frontlines of insurance businesses reveals that this time around at least, the latter looks more likely. A report from NFU Mutual emphasised a sharp rise in rural crime as the cost-of-living crisis hits the countryside. Rural crime saw a drop in 2020 and 2021, the mutual insurer said, but it has since risen over 40% in Q1 2022 – with farm vehicles, including quad bike and trailer thefts, continuing to plague the countryside

NFU Mutual noted that the data recorded from H1 2022, compared with that of H1 2021, reveals that the frequency and cost of fuel theft claims have more than doubled in that period. In a new poll of the rural community by NFU Mutual, almost half of respondents (49%) said that fuel theft was now their greatest crime concern.

Commenting on the findings, Rebecca Davidson, rural affairs specialist at NFU Mutual, said: “With prices of essential farm equipment such as tractors and quads rising fast and the cost of diesel soaring over the past year, there’s little doubt that criminals will be trying to steal from farms.

“We also know that essentials of rural living like heating oil tanks will only become more attractive to thieves as costs rise. A recent poll by NFU Mutual reveals that 89% of respondents believe inflation will lead to an increase in rural crime.”

Recession-linked crime, and insurance fraud as a subsect of that, represents a challenge to insurance brokers, requiring additional insight, support and thought leadership. As with so many challenges in insurance, however, it also presents an opportunity for brokers to highlight the immutable advantages that their services can offer insureds.

Brokers need to be in place to provide effective thought leadership aimed at helping clients – whether across the fine art & specie market, the high-net-worth market, the agricultural insurance piece or even just day-to-day personal lines insurance offerings – understand their exposures and mitigate the risks they face.

And they need to tap into every available resource from their insurance partners, across the entire value chain, to ensure that applicable support, advice and measures consistently find their way into the right hands. From encouraging clients to invest in effective security measures, to tapping into police resources, to reiterating best practices, insurance brokers have a keen role to play in protecting businesses and individuals as they weather the storm of the latest recessionary environment.

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“As a business we understand that we have a responsibility to do more to tackle difficult issues, by ensuring that we operate responsibly and contribute positively to a sustainable future for generations to come. Doing the right thing defines who we are, and integrity is essential to everything we do.”

A volunteer-run network with more than 3,000 members, iCAN is part of [email protected]’s and advocates multicultural inclusion across the insurance industry. The sponsorship will back a wide range of initiatives, including mentoring schemes and member events.

“I am in the unique position of being able to see the benefits from both sides,” commented iCAN co-chair and DWF senior associate Kishan Mangat (pictured). “Being a part of the DWF organisation myself, I am very proud that my company is making this important commitment to driving DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) progress within the insurance industry.

“And for iCAN, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to work closely together with DWF to create an impact more broadly across the insurance market when it comes to the inclusion of our multicultural and international colleagues.”

Co-chair Ajay Mistry, meanwhile, added that they “couldn’t be happier” to have DWF on board as a gold sponsor.

“By having their support at the highest level, we can really strive to do a lot more for our 3,000-plus members, and continue to successfully build and expand on the impact we have had over the last five years,” he said.

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It is worth reminding ourselves why this is such a vital process for the market, and more importantly for its business partners and clients. Today, the London insurance market produces almost all its contracts as documents – often in Word. While this has meant that underwriters and brokers have the flexibility to create bespoke contracts, that comes at a price. These manual processes mean delays and errors and our clients are paying the cost of transacting business in this analogue fashion. And they are not alone. Brokers and underwriters are undertaking labour intensive processes to extract data, as well as not being able to take advantage of automation including portfolio analytics.

By allowing business to take place on the basis of a digital exchange of data, the electronic binding of the risks and a fully digital contact lifecycle, everyone in the insurance value chain will benefit from:

• Capturing a minimum amount of structured data at the point of bind will reduce re-keying.
• Reducing errors and queries by having clean and accurate structured data.
• Extracting data will be fast.
• Claims handling will be improved by access to structured customer and risk data.

Ultimately, we want the market to move to a fully computable contract, a contract which can be read and understood not only be humans, but also by machines. The first stage was defining what data was required and the market has agreed the CDR. Next is identifying who puts in what data and when, so that data can flow to everyone involved in the contract. Then it is how to structure that data in contract and that is the iMRC.  All of this will ensure that accurate, ACORD standardised data will flow through the entire insurance transaction lifecycle with minimal human intervention.  It will be fundamental to the success of our transformation for open market placement.

The first step on the iMRC journey is updated MRC guidance. This will specify all the data that is needed downstream, so everyone knows what is required. The second part of the iMRC is being far more specific as to how certain data elements should be represented.

What we are not proposing is that all contracts conform to any one specific format – that is for the firms themselves to decide. But it will mean they are required to include the essential data and that it is in a prescribed fashion. While the consultation is underway, the Data Council will be conducting a full review of the amendments that are being proposed to ensure they do not compromise any legal and regulatory requirements.

The launch of the iMRC does not mean there will be a move to fully digital contracts immediately, however, it is an exciting first step on the journey. But this is the market’s contract, so we want the market to tell us what it thinks.

Please get involved and visit the LMG website – Market Standards – London Market Group (lmg.london).

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