OLDWICK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Best’s Review features “An Industry Transformed,” a cross-media project with AMBestTV that examines how COVID-19 has changed the insurance industry. In this four-part package, industry leaders discuss technology, relevance, innovation and future solutions.
- “Digitally Native, Not by Choice” looks at how the pandemic has affected digital strategy. As the lockdowns spread, insurers were forced to shift to a virtual environment or close. “The velocity of decision-making that led to the crisis management is also something that was quite new for many carriers,” said McKinsey’s Tanguy Catlin. “They don’t want to go back to the old ways of taking months and years to make important decisions.”
- Ordered to close because of COVID-19, businesses and organizations queried their brokers and scoured their policies to see if they were covered for business interruption. For most, business interruption was excluded because it was pandemic-related. Considering the scale of possible loss, the industry lived to insure another day. But it also put its brand at risk by becoming known as an industry that loves to exclude risk. In “Defending Relevancy,” the University of South Carolina’s Robert Hartwig said history shows that insurance remains an industry that exists to solve problems. “Over time, the industry will demonstrate its continued relevance as it has for hundreds of years.”
- “Innovation Now” looks at how the pandemic has spurred innovation. Some organizations are more innovative than others, giving them a head start on meeting a changed world. AM Best has been vocal about the need to foster insurance innovation. “With all the changes and the escalation, and the speed of those changes, with data, technology and society and the climate, innovation becomes that much more important to a company,” said Matthew Mosher of AM Best Rating Services.
- “Reaching Beyond the Industry” explores public-private partnerships. Given that possible losses from the next pandemic, widespread cyberattacks or other large-scale perils could outstrip the total capital available to the entire insurance industry, one solution is to build risk partnerships between the industry and governments. “You’re going to need every ounce of capital and capacity behind this that you can possibly get,” said Barry Gilway of Citizens Property Insurance.
- Also featured in the September issue of Best’s Review:
- In “Past as Prologue,” NY Life Chief Executive Officer Ted Mathas finds even amid the COVID-19 pandemic that the company’s 175-year history can be a guide to the future;
- “Before the Bench” examines business interruption insurance litigation related to COVID-19. While insurers contend policy language and pandemic-related coverage exclusions are legal and clear, plaintiffs’ attorneys take a different view;
- Insurers must monitor climate change legislation that threatens the industry. Learn more in “On Watch”; and
- Top 50 World’s Largest Reinsurance Groups.
Full access to the complete content of Best’s Review is available at www.bestreview.com.
AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specializing in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.
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