Digital Ecosystem is Critical to the Future of Reinsurance

A new white paper by the reinsurance marketplace platform, Supercede has revealed the importance of the digital ecosystem to continue the growth of the reinsurance market. 

Supercede, the global all-in-one reinsurance placement platform, researched insights from the industry and expertise from 11 industry leaders, to compile the report that shows how reinsurance solutions look set to transform the industry.  

Contributors lending their expertise to the white paper include top executives from Lloyds, Guidewire, and Willis Re. While they identify the potential benefits of open data platforms for the industry, they also issued cautions, saying the industry needs to change its culture and processes alongside its technology to fully reap the benefits of a modern ecosystem. 

Support for digital solutions in insurtech essential

A number of the reports’ expert contributors agreed that digital transformation is likely to fail unless staff supports the idea by recognising the opportunities it provides. If companies are able to do this, benefits include improved transparency and market liquidity, faster decision-making based on real-time analytics, and automated workflows with straight-through processing. 

The study suggests cedents, brokers, and reinsurers should join the discussion and work together to explore the benefits of open data platforms and data sharing for the entire industry.

Currently, Supercede manages the complete placement lifecycle for the largest independent global network of reinsurance professionals, worldwide. It captures actuarial-grade submission data with Supercede Analytics and enables users to trade without cost on one intuitive placement platform. It is therefore well-placed to access critical insights and report on the latest industry trends.

Reinsurance trends and the digital ecosystem

Speaking about the findings,  Jerad Leigh, Supercede’s co-founder, and CEO explained, “The reinsurance industry is an excellent example of a thriving ecosystem comprising multiple entities with a high degree of interdependence, collaborating closely to create value. And yet, our ecosystem  is ripe for change, as vast amounts of manual work are required to get data in and out of systems.”

He continued, “This leads to huge additional costs and inefficiencies. Automation will massively reduce the man-hours required to work with reinsurance data, saving huge costs in the process, freeing up valuable resources for more strategic tasks, and vastly improving the quality of analysis,” he adds. 

Paul Mang, Chief Innovation Officer of Guidewire, a contributor to the white paper, said one of the biggest challenges that need to be overcome is the allocation of talent resources - and that once the industry embraces the digital shift, great progress will be made. “You’ve got expensive talented resources doing repetitive low-value things. That’s been mostly stamped out in other industries – dentists don't clean your teeth anymore,” commented Mang.

Meanwhile, Printhan Sothinathan, Chief Strategy Officer of Willis Re Specialty and Co-Head of Global Analytics,  Willis Re concluded, “Having a more robust mechanism for placements opens avenues for much better and faster price discovery. It will redefine the way in which analytics is delivered. Trades will be more transparent and information more readily available. If I can influence a decision-maker in minutes  rather than months, I’m going to win.” 

Hélène Stanway, Market Engagement Lead and Adoption Lead, Future at Lloyd’s, agreed. She added, “Change programmes typically focus on the process and the technology, not the people. New  technology is often overlaid over today’s process and the people. As you’re changing technology, you  also need to change the humans."