Using technology as an underwriting tool

EVEN the direst of situations can present a silver lining, or in this case, opportunities to improve the way things have always been done. This ongoing pandemic (and I do hope it ends soon) has hastened the digitization of the nonlife insurance sector. It has opened the eyes of the tradition-bound practitioners and alerted them to doing things faster, better, fairer, more efficiently and at far less cost. This encompasses almost the entire breadth of an insurer’s operations — from the product’s design and development, how it is underwritten, how it is distributed, how claims are adjudicated and processed, and how payments to (premiums) and from (claims) the company are made.

There are various examples I could use for each specific class of business, be it fire, marine, casualty or personal accident, but allow me to zero in on motor car insurance as this is by far the most numerous in terms of policy count and premiums (it accounts for more than half of the industry’s total premium volume).