What are the top casualty insurance concerns around the world?

Casualty insurance is a challenging but exciting line of business. That was the overriding message shared by Jason Richards, head of casualty underwriting reinsurance at Swiss Re, during his ‘Future of Casualty’ speech at the Swiss Re 2019 Canadian Insurance Outlook in Toronto. While some of the challenges and opportunities in casualty insurance reign true across global jurisdictions, others are very acutely geographic. Richards broke down the trends by region to paint a realistic picture of the global casualty insurance outlook. ASIA. Asia and the emerging markets around the world represent the vast majority of insurance growth in the next few years, according to Richards. Leading the way within those emerging markets is China, which is currently experiencing product innovation at a very high level, lots of competition, and low margins. “The government in China is continuing to promote insurance for society, with liability being one of the focal points. The local insurers in China are also focused very much on liability, firstly because there’s a big protection gap, and secondly because of the slip margins and low growth in the other mainline business, which is motor,” said Richards. “The Chinese insurers are hungry for new ideas, they’re hungry to learn from other parts of the world, and that’s something we [at Swiss Re] try to help them with.