Summer’s lease has been palled by WannaCry, fears of ransomware and spear phishing. The global cyberattacks in May have indeed raised awareness of cyber exposures, despite the damages being contained by chance or accident. There is a buzz about cyber protection, making our Cyber Risk Summit in Singapore this month a must-attend event for the industry. In this edition, aside from looking at why cyber should keep most CEOs awake at night, we remind CEOs and CIOs to build their talent pool in cyber security. The industry is still short of cyber security expertise and as we will know, cyber resilience is much more than just buying insurance.
Despite all the geopolitical tensions and uncertainties, the economy is on its own steam forging ahead with widespread growth, surprising most pundits. But this is good news for the industry, and there is a hive of insurance activities in the region in this hectic month of June. From an insurance perspective, I see more companies and more leaders talking of customer engagement in the retail, commercial and wholesale arenas. The greater challenge is to see this trend entrenched and to get the customers to want to be engaged with insurance too.
Our Cover Story this month is on Nat CATs to manage the tremors, where we rope in views of experts, analysts and modellers to draw a grim what-if picture of a massive quake hitting the Himalayas.
Our Country Profile is on Taiwan, where we host the 15th Asia CAT Conference on the longest day in the northern hemisphere, with the dramatic theme: “Insurance in the Ring of Fire”. Managing natural disasters with an increasing frequency and severity of impact is a priority issue these days as even governments are looking at passing these risks to the private sector.
The Taiwan market gets ahead very fast. Yet, it is perennially engaged in the dance of taking three steps forward, one step back. Last year, Taiwan walked away with the insurance company of the year Awards for both life and general insurance categories, with both Awards going to the Fubon Group. The market is still on a growth path, though buffeted by relentless change.
In June, the summer reflections we offer are that, aside from disruptive innovation and keeping up with InsurTech as a real and permanent feature of the industry and not just a passing fad, do return to focus on claims management as a priority issue that really can make the industry shine with real light.
Claims is the proof of the insurance pudding. But in preparing for our Asia Claims Management Conference in Singapore for this month, we could not find a valiant hero ready to speak on “Coping with the PR backlash on denied claims”. The standard self-righteous response was: “We don’t deny claims as we pay all legitimate claims”. Yet, there are so many stories of unhappy claimants. So what gives? Here is a chance to make your difference by being a leader in claims management! Don’t fear unleashing the army of spurious claimants. The Claims Revolution must come before insurance can become a want and must buy. I look forward to reading and writing more happy claims stories.
A warm and happy summer to all, and my best of Ramadan wishes to our Muslim readers.
Sivam Subramaniam
Editor-in-Chief
Asia Insurance Review