Building resilience to tackle future threats

Russell Group’s Suki Basi on why a deeper understanding of connected risk is needed to tackle the complex risk environment of today.

As I outlined in my first article for The Insurer at this year’s RVS, the origins of Russell Group go back thirty years, when we played our part in the Lloyd’s Equitas project. Our clients have trusted us over the years to deliver robust and resilient processes to tackle current and future threats. This includes many Lloyd’s syndicates, company market and continental insurance and reinsurance entities.

When Russell first came on the (re)insurance scene, the word ‘insurtech’ had not been considered! It has only been in the last 10 years or so that word has been in use. Russell is, of course, a form of insurtech – but that can be a very limiting definition.

Technology that works

We have had client relationships with some of the world’s biggest (re)insurance companies for 30 years because, clearly, our technology works. Far more important than the technology, however, are our relationships with clients, which are what make Russell such a good fit with the (re)insurance market.

Ultimately, (re)insurance is a people business. Press reports on the latest big thing in insurtech will detail the innovation and the cutting-edge technology involved but, as investors have learnt in recent years, there is a danger in looking at tech as an end and not a means to an end.

People setting up a new technology insurance start up often don’t succeed because they simply do not understand the market in which they operate.

Big-ticket tech

A world with so many different parties in the (re)insurance value chain, extending all the way from the retrocessionaire, to reinsurers, insurers, brokers and the ultimate corporate client is complex and nuanced. Solutions in the ‘big-ticket’ (re)insurance arena often develop over time, sometimes over years of building trust through long term relationships and collaboration.

We are now helping our corporate work group members to assess their business risk against our business interruption matrix risk so that each member can quantify the outcome to threat event scenarios, which are increasingly common across our membership. The outcomes can then be assessed across existing coverage to better understand gaps in coverage and enable risk managers to have better conversations with the (re)insurance market.

(Re)insurers understand that the world is increasingly connected to multiplying and complex threats caused by myriad factors, including digitisation (cyber), globalisation, geopolitics, and a changing climate. So, understanding such threats is about more than technology; it is about a deeper understanding of connected risk, the way the (re)insurance market operates, and the ability to see the world through the lens of an underwriter’s and/or broker’s strategic worldview.