Biba 2023: A period of regulatory and legislative stability tops broker wish list

In a session on ‘What’s coming for brokers’ hosted by Biba executive director Graeme Trudgill, the audience was asked to pick from seven options (see box) and share views on the one insurance-related action they would most like to see going forward.

‘Legislative and regulatory’ calm led the chart with 36% of the votes, followed by greater development and availability of insurtech at 25%.

Over the course of a wide-ranging discussion, the panellists tackled the issues on the horizon heading towards brokers including legislative changes.

Shannon Cochrane, deputy director for insurance and pensions markets at HM Treasury, told delegates: “The government has an ambitious set of proposals and plans for financial services more widely and is more focused on insurance than it has been at any point in recent history.

“I would emphasise how important it is to government.”

According to Janthana Kaenprakhamroy, chief executive and founder of Tapoly, open insurance can be a huge opportunity for the insurance industry “to completely revolutionise and innovate”.

She said: “From the product perspective, open banking has been around for a number of years … and the benefits are already there.”

In her view customers are already seeing the benefits of open banking. She said: “There is a comparable benefit in the insurance space so I am really, really excited about this new emerging technology.”

Data

Hilda Toh, property and casualty chief underwriting officer at Chubb UK, also referenced the key topic of data.

She said insurers always have to think about evolution and how to evolve with brokers’ and clients’ needs.

“We all recognise the necessity for data and the integration between how we all trade. We all know the current models that we have been utilising will need to evolve. That is going to take a bit of time,” Toh said.

“One of the most important things is we find a solution that works for everyone.”

Legislation

Picking up on the legislative issues Trudgill analysed that the Financial Services and Markets Bill, currently going through parliament, has been described as the most important regulation in the sector in a generation.

Cochrane said that the post Brexit Bill is tailoring UK regulation to UK markets and is designed to make the country more competitive.

“This is the Bill that delivers the new objectives for the regulator on growth and competitiveness,” she said.

“That call from insurers and the industry for more agile, proportionate and effective regulation is something the government has heard very clearly and wants to take action on.”

Risk protection gap

Jane Kielty, head of commercial risk UK at Aon, pointed to the risk protection gap where cover is lacking as a crucial topic.

“The young professionals in this room can help us think differently about how we help society generally with the risks,” she said. “The digital, and all the ways we can improve how we operate as an industry, are fantastic but until we get the fundamental risk protection gap sorted and find ways to address that we might get disrupted.”

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