World insurance in 2017: solid, but mature life markets weigh on growth

whitePaper | May 16, 2022

The combination of high-resolution aerial imaging and artificial intelligence has practical applications for multiple use cases, such as manufacturing defects detection, environmental impact studies and planning, urban vegetation mapping, and precision agriculture. Now, as major natural disasters have increased, the insurance industry is using aerial imagery and AI for damage assessment. This is part of an expanded focus on post-event analysis that uses data, AI, and analytics to understand risk mitigation. Aerial imagery and AI can help address varying spectral bands of resolutions and other factors that the human eye cannot easily connect.

whitePaper | March 2, 2020

Decades ago, a group of merchants created a concept of general average—which is when all parties in a maritime venture share in losses resulting from a sacrifice of cargo in an emergency. What this group fashioned in 1890 was a method for merchants to insure their shipped goods. Upon landing, merchants whose cargo landed safely were expected to contribute a portion to merchants whose goods had been lost at sea. With this, an early form of insurance was born.

whitePaper | August 25, 2021

As the contours of a postpandemic economy begin to take shape, the implications for privateequity (PE) investors in the insurance sector are also coming into focus. When we last published our perspective on this space, in November 2020, insurance-industry M&A activity was on the rise, insurtech IPOs and special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) were taking off, and uncertainty around the timing of COVID-19 vaccines and the “next normal” loomed large. Today, many players in US and European markets are applying insights from their 2020 performance to emerge stronger amid increased consolidation, digitization, and specialization, as well as persistently low interest rates.

whitePaper | May 12, 2023

Today’s insurance industry operates in a world that’s increasingly complex and unpredictable. As insurers navigate economic, environmental, and social challenges, access to quality, trusted data has the potential to create new opportunities. Connected technologies – sensors and other devices that capture and share data in real time – can provide insurers with fresh insights into risk. For the insurer, this data can mitigate exposure, increase pricing accuracy, and foster revenue growth. It can even transform the insurer from a company that collects premiums and pays claims into a trusted partner that helps clients prevent accidents, damage, and losses before they occur.

whitePaper | August 1, 2022

After enjoying healthy margins for several years, insurance organisations aren’t as profitable as they once were. McKinsey’s 2022 global insurance report finds that, after decades of stable returns, more than half of insurers now earn less than their cost of equity. Worldwide, around half of all listed insurance organisations have traded below book value over the past five years.

whitePaper | April 5, 2022

As a heavily regulated, intensively bureaucratic sector – a business founded on caution – insurance has always been slow to adapt. But a confluence of historic challenges is forcing the industry to undergo arguably the most radical change in its history.