Incumbents and insurtechs: The challenge of seeing eye to eye

EY New Zealand and InsurTechNZ recently launched their first study into New Zealand’s insurtech landscape, which aimed to ‘initiate the right conversations’ between incumbents and insurtechs to kick-start potential business partnerships – something which will be invaluable in the future of insurance as a customer-centric business. The survey quizzed players across both the insurance and tech sectors, and discovered a fairly young insurtech network that is ripe for collaboration. However, it also discovered a number of hurdles from both sides of the fence which meant they might eye each other with caution – something which needs to be addressed if New Zealand is to be a strong player in the growing insurtech landscape. “It’s great that this survey has been conducted for the first time in New Zealand,” EY partner Graeme Horne said, introducing the report.