Welcome
Welcome to the second quarter edition of our EMEA Quarterly newsletter. We are pleased to bring you a new collection of insightful articles related to your business, describing leadership strategies, new insurance concepts and developments in distribution, underwriting and financial reinsurance solutions.
This newsletter also includes, if you will indulge me, some thoughts I have collected on the nature of leadership, and the nature of the self-defeating dragons we often encounter in our quests. In Thoughts on Leadership: Riding the Dragon, I share four strategies I have found to be effective, even if they seem contradictory to some “best practices” promoted today.
In our quest for truly innovative and effective insurance ideas, RGAX has organized the Big Ideas Competition for the third year in a row to attract and recognize innovators and entrepreneurs who have practical solutions that are ready to be put to use. Dozens of entries came from across Europe and the ideas were so remarkable that for the first time we selected two winners. I invite you to read more about them in How MedTech Will Design a Brighter Future for Insurance, written by Emmanuel Djengue, Innovation Director, Europe, for RGAX.
Innovation isn’t just about making it easier to sell insurance. You can make sprouts easy to find and buy, and you won’t necessarily increase sales of sprouts, as Matt Battersby, Vice President and Chief Behavioural Scientist reminds us. His article, The Role of Persuasion and Behavioural Economics in Insurance: How to Sell Sprouts, shares some clear thinking on how to awaken the need for insurance in the consumer’s mind.
When that need is awakened, it needs to be easier to purchase insurance. Jean-Louis Fourie, Business Development Actuary for RGA South Africa discovered this (almost painfully) during a cross-country mountain bike race, inspiring him to write The WhatsApp Insurance Revolution: It’s Here, to update you on an emerging marketing channel that is breaking down barriers.
Having a greater understanding of our customers’ motivations and behaviors isn’t just for marketing of course. Statistics show that globally, one person commits suicide every 40 seconds. In Suicide Trends and Risk Factors, Marilda Kotze, Vice President and Global Head of Claims for RGA South Africa, shares the latest research on this disturbing reality and how it may be addressed.
Market Risk Reinsurance Solutions Under Solvency II, written by Paul Sauvé, Senior Vice President, EMEA Global Financial Solutions, reports that most insurers are doing well under SII, but many are also exploring financial reinsurance solutions for the future that transfer market risk under the Solvency Capital Requirement.
Our ever-more digital world is brings new information, and new opportunities to us every day. It also brings us ethical questions to address or anticipate, as described in The Ethics of Algorithms in Insurance, by Enrique Ruiz, Managing Director, RGA Spain and Portugal as he thinks about not only what we can do, but what we should do.
Thank you for your continued support and I hope you enjoy your summer holidays.
