Pearl River, N.Y., October 15, 2018 – Leaders from top carriers, brokers, vendors, and other industry stakeholders gathered to discuss key issues and trends facing the insurance industry at ACORD Connect 2018 in New Orleans in October.
As the global standards-setting body for the insurance industry, with over 8,000 participants, ACORD is well positioned to provide perspective on the global competitive landscape. Its unique role provides access to an unrivalled scale and scope of data, which its R&D arm utilizes to make valuable insights and strategic and tactical implications available to its members.
“Continuing to improve and automate data exchange among various trading partners in order to increase capacity, reduce costs, and optimize E&O – that’s a perennial topic,” said Bijesh Jacob, SVP Technology & Standards, ACORD Solutions Group. “This year, we also heard a lot about using Artificial Intelligence to significantly improve the experience of insureds, brokers and carriers alike. Finally, we also saw increasing interest around moving blockchain technology from pilots to real-world applications and specific use cases, such as issuing and sharing certificates of insurance, auto policy ID cards, and the like.”
Bill Pieroni, President CEO of ACORD, presented findings from the ACORD Global Insurance Marketplace Study in his keynote address. This research examined strategic options and outcomes in multiple lines of business across different types of global markets.
“Carriers spend a great deal of time evaluating their strategic options. Most don’t fully appreciate which are viable within each type of market,” Pieroni said. “We looked at 11,000 carriers across 85 countries over 10 years, representing 99% of global premiums. This study is unprecedented in terms of its scale, scope, and insight.”
The ACORD study used data on insurance GDP penetration and its rate of change to classify markets across the world as Mature, Developing, or Opportunistic. ACORD then evaluated the financial performance of carriers in each market and compared it to their strategic choices. For instance, the study found that a clear majority of high-performing property and casualty carriers in Mature markets chose to compete on product leadership, while top life insurers in Developing markets focused on operational excellence.
The study also found several other key differences in the characteristics of winning carriers in different global markets. For example, P&C insurers in Mature markets enjoyed benefits of scale up to a certain point, beyond which size tended to be detrimental to high performance, while in Developing markets the largest carriers tended to enjoy the greatest success.
“Tell us what market segment you’re competing in, or planning on entering, and our study can tell you which strategies and capabilities are required for value creation,” Pieroni said.
Full results of the ACORD Global Insurance Marketplace Study will be released to ACORD members in a white paper in Q1 of 2019. For more information about ACORD research and events, visit www.acord.org.