The insurance sector, in riding the wave of the FinTech phenomenon, has been rapidly expanding, with a slew of firms having emerged to provide ‘Insurtech’ services. These services incorporate concepts such as blockchain, artificial intelligence, digitalisation, and the sharing economy to various aspects of the insurance industry. This profusion of technology brings with it the promise of various benefits in increasing efficiency and lowering costs for not only insurers and intermediaries, but also businesses or consumers as end users of insurance. However, if we dive deeper, the development of Insurtech comes with corresponding risks and regulatory concerns not currently accounted for by the traditional regulatory model.

With this, we moved on to discuss the following:

1. Insurtech has been a growing force around the world, as evidenced by increasing Insurtech investment funding from 2011 until Q2 2021. How can we expect this scenario moving forward? Will there be more inclination towards mergers and acquisition or will there be a massive sum of venture capital still flowing into multiple new start-ups looking to tackle different niches in the vast insurance sector.

2. Insurtechs are increasingly looking to find applications throughout the life cycle of an insurance product, like from product development, underwriting and distribution to administration and claims processing. With this, how can we expect technology getting leveraged to benefit insurers as well as customers in each of these phases of the life cycle.

3. The insurance industry consists of potential prejudice and discriminations particularly when they collect and apply data. For example, the question of whether it would be fair for an insurer to use personal data from social media or networks to evaluate a customer’s risk profile does not admit of any easy answer and such prejudice may manifest as higher insurance costs. Considering this, the speaker gave his views on - how insurtech can best tackle such situations.

4. Can we better promote innovation in insurance? If we see from the compliance side, regulators should adopt a more liberal attitude towards the rise of Insurtech. In-fact, regulators should consider how to create the proper environment to foster innovation. Listen in to know Steve's view on this pressing global challenge.

Speaker Bio: Steve Tunstall, is the CEO & Co-founder of Inzsure. Inzsure is your digital partner throughout the entire insurance cycle from procurement to claims and renewals. So don’t forget to check out inzsure.com to learn more. At Inzsure, Steve is responsible for managing all aspects of the business, including strategy, finance, sales and marketing.

Prior to Inzsure, Steve has 30 years of experience and has managed five companies in four countries including two previous start-ups. Based in Asia for most of his career with experience in dozens of countries globally, Steve brings a broad-based approach to the management of both risk and opportunities. To name some, his previous roles included: Head of Compliance, Insurance, Legal and Risk at Cathay Pacific and risk advisor to the rest of the Swire Group, Vice President of Risk for Genting Singapore & Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) and Managing Director for Jardine Pacific, Schindler Lifts Singapore. Steve also holds the following positions: General Secretary at the Pan Asian Risk & Insurance Management Association (PARIMA) and Asia Ambassador at the International Insurance Society.