The event, organized by the Slovenian Insurance Supervision Agency - AZN, gathered top speakers that offered in- depth analyses to participants from the insurance industry, insurance regulators, consumer representatives, journalists and representatives from the national governmental authorities.
The conference program included sessions on the IDD and risks arising from the distribution of insurance products, as well as on digitalisation and innovation in the insurance sector. The upcoming regulatory changes can represent a vital tool to increase consumer protection and improve business practices. Additionally, technological innovation in the area of insurance sales and other insurance processes can also have a profound impact on the insurers, their processes and ultimately on their business models.
The purpose of the "Consumer Protection in New Era - Innovation vs. Regulation" conference was to highlight the regulatory changes, brought about by the IDD, and the challenges posed by the regulatory changes, as well as the challenges of digital transformation, to the insurers and to the insurance intermediaries.
Sergej SIMONITI, Director of Insurance supervision Agency, Slovenia, AZN
- AZN is convinced that trust in the insurance system can be undermined by poor sales practices. Moreover, the changes brought by the IDD Directive serve as a vital tool to increase consumer protection and, also, to improve business practices. Insurers, their processes and their business models will be profoundly impacted by the technological innovation over the insurance area, including sales and every other insurance process.
- The goal of the new regulation is good, but let's see if the objectives will be achieved
- Information overload might have a negative impact on consumers
- We need to keep in mind that rights from public social security systems are going down, so consumers will have to compensate with the private sector
- I believe in an integrated approach between prudential regulation and consumer protection. Consumer protection is EIOPA's major objective
- It is always better to detect the first signals of mis-selling and be preventive
- Putting customers first not only serves the customers, but also gives a competitive advantage to companies that move forward
- Industry is coming more and more under pressure from digitalization. The industry really has a difficult job putting digitalization into business
- We are not the obstacle to innovation, but we need to be fair towards customers and to have a fair competition
- Insuretech means USD 2,7 billion in investments in 2015, in comparison with USD 140 million in 2011. These companies have emerged across the value chain and lines of business, with concentration in distribution
- The new generation is slowly starting to be our customer
- Motor insurance will be at the center of innovation in insurance, with the arrival of black boxes, driverless cars, etc. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence are also hot topics
- Resistance to change is the major element hampering innovation in the insurance business
- For the first time, consumer protection is embedded in the product itself. It is the first time when insurance manufacturers, insurance undertakings and intermediaries have to design, use and review processes for the approval of new products. All these have to happen before the marketing or distribution. The product approval process must specify the identified target market and also if the distribution strategy is consistent with this market. This information should be made available to all distributors.
- What we need is balance. What we also need is trust between supervisors, industry and consumers. The intention is definitely good. But one should not forget that the devil is always in the details...
- EIOPA has developed a repository of all Solvency II reporting data in Europe. We can prepare new services based on that database, so that we will give something back to National Competent Authorities (NCAs), but also to insurance undertakings. This repository, CRDB represents one consistent technical and analytical solution for all group and solo supervisors in Europe
- We also offer information exchange on cross-border business. Exchanged information on FOE and FOS relates to premiums, claims and commission. This is reducing the number of data flows from each NCA to each NCA to "EIOPA to 31 NCAs"
- Digital is fundamentally reshaping the competitive dynamics and customer expectations. A more dynamically changing environment is underway.
- The emergence of new generations further accelerates the digitalisation; digital has already transformed numerous industries and is now attaching the value chain of insurance companies
- We see 3 main roles of the regulator in digital: to enable digitalisation of the core, to steer insurers' focus on new digital risks and to encourage genuine innovation
The speakers list included well-known professionals from the European insurance field:
- Sergej SIMONITI, Director of Insurance supervision Agency, Slovenia, AZN
- Andrej SLAPAR, President of the Management Board, Zavarovalnica Triglav d.d., Slovenia
- Manuela ZWEIMUELLER, Head of the Policy Department, EIOPA
- Jure KIMOVEC, Financial Sector Analyst, S&P Global Ratings
- Alexandru D. CIUNCAN, Member of the IRSG & OPSG, EIOPA; Managing Partner, XPRIMM
- Marko STAJDUHAR, Executive Director, Willis Towers Watson d.d., Croatia
- Anton GLOBOKAR, Head of Sales for Life insurance, Adriatic Slovenica d.d., Slovenia
- Gregor PILGRAM, Chief Financial Officer, Member of Management Board, Director and Member of Executive Committee, Generali CEE Holding B.V.
- Marjan TROBINA, Coordinator of Information Team, EIOPA
- Janez BENSA, CEO, Parsek GMBH, Austria
- Akos UJLAKI, Project Leader, The Boston Consulting Group
- Dr. Filip GLAVAN, Principal, The Boston Consulting Group
- Giovanni MANGINI, Actuary - Insurance solution specialist, FIA, ONA, Moody's Analytics UK Ltd.
- Zoran MILOSEVIC, Chief Innovation & Digital officer, Zavarovalnica Triglav d.d., Slovenia
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