The 2nd Global Insurtech Conference, co-sponsored by the financial community and Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone, was held on December 29-31, 2021, with the theme of "Starting a New Journey and Creating the Future". Wei Chenyang, deputy dean of the Fintech Research Institute of Tsinghua University, director of the China Insurance and Pension Research Center of the National Institute of Finance, and secretary general of the Global Real Estate Finance Forum of the Wudaokou School of Finance of Tsinghua University, delivered a keynote speech entitled "New Trends in the Post-epidemic Era of Global Insurtech", in which he said that insurtech has entered an outbreak period in the world, and the driving factor behind it is in addition to the acceleration of the overall process of global technology and digitalization, another important factor is the birth of the epidemic for security.
Wei Chenyang uses the chart to show the overall situation of the top ten largest companies in the United States in the past 100 years, and it can be clearly seen that in the past 100 years, among the top 10 largest companies in the United States, technology-based companies account for more and more, from one in 1917 to 4 in 1967, and then to half of the country in 2017 (5), and occupy the top 4. Wei Chenyang further said that the development of global science and technology, including the process of digitalization that we are talking about now, occupies an increasingly prominent role in the global capital market and in the entire economy.
Regarding the impact of the epidemic, Wei Chenyang quoted Nobel laureate economist Michael Spencer as saying: "The epidemic has accelerated global digitalization, bringing new opportunities for innovation to all industries, and this change will be irreversible." ”
Wei Chenyang further explained the outbreak of global insurance technology from the aspects of investment and financing boom and corporate listing tide.
According to the data, in the first three quarters of 2021, the total amount of global financial technology investment and financing was 94 billion US dollars, more than 96% of the whole year of 2020. Among them, the United States is in the lead with investment and financing data of $14.6 billion and 457 transactions. In particular, in the third quarter, 43 new unicorn companies were added, with an annual growth rate of 378%, a total of 206. In the boom of financial technology investment and financing, insurtech is particularly strong, with the amount of financing in the first three quarters of 2021 exceeding that of the whole year of 2020, and the United States is the leading globally.
So, in the fintech track, 7 major subdivisions represented by banking, insurance, payment, capital markets, etc., why can the financing of insurtech "stand out"? Wei Chenyang said that on the one hand, it is because of the improvement of security awareness or demand in the post-epidemic era, on the other hand, it is due to the continuous maturity of start-ups, and their technology, business, products and other links have entered the stage of middle and late strength.
From the perspective of the global insurtech listing tide. The data shows that from 2014 to 2019, a total of 9 insurance technology companies have been listed worldwide, and since 2020, a total of 13 insurance technology companies have been listed, and insurtech has ushered in a wave of listings. In 2021, the wave of insurtech listings continued, with 8 insurtech companies completing listings. The geographical distribution of listed insurance companies is mainly in the United States, and there are 2 in China. The business scope of listed companies mainly involves insurance e-commerce, housing insurance, health insurance and car insurance.
Technology drives all-round innovation, and Wei Chenyang believes that in the entire fintech track, insurance is the biggest beneficiary of the global digitalization process. From the perspective of the entire business process of insurance, each link has high requirements and great room for improvement in technological innovation, from the perspective of insurance types, property insurance, life insurance, health insurance... each insurance type is a scene, and each scene is a new innovation opportunity.
For example, Wei Chenyang said that in the product design process, digital technology can effectively help customized insurance products based on customer use and behavior, and the design and improvement of innovative products proposed for new insurance scenarios derived from the sharing economy environment; in the distribution link, digital technology can collect data from mobile terminals, social media and other channels to achieve precision marketing, and summarize insurance products online to facilitate customer comparison, so as to create a new online distribution model; in the underwriting and pricing links, Digital technology can capture and analyze real-time remote data, accurate pricing, and based on artificial intelligence to provide automated, efficient underwriting process, to achieve dynamic accurate pricing, automatic underwriting; in the policy management link, customers can achieve automatic renewal of premiums through mobile phone applications, access or view policies at any time, digital technology based on artificial intelligence technology to provide intelligent customer service, to achieve active management, strengthen customer interaction; in the claims process, digital based on image recognition technology, can provide intelligent insurance loss determination, Based on artificial intelligence, digital underwriting claims can be made.
Wei Chenyang also pointed out that the understanding of data and analysis is far from in-depth in the culture of insurance companies, but it is becoming the consensus of insurance companies.
Under the background of the general trend of global digitalization, traditional financial enterprises have made efforts and attempts in digital transformation, which Wei Chenyang summarized with "top-down, both internal and external". First, top-level design introduces digitalization from top to bottom. For example, the position of chief digital officer and chief information officer is set up, the number of digital products and sales is increased, the internal IT platform is built, and the digital management network is built, and the intelligent analysis capability of large data is established to achieve automated execution; secondly, the internal department focusing on research and development is set up to establish and improve the incubation mechanism; second, external cooperation with enabling technology companies or Internet giants to expand innovation deployment. For example, IBM Watson provided Swiss Re with advanced neural network analysis models to help accurate pricing and underwriting; finally, it cooperated with external universities to explore the next technological breakthrough, such as Swiss Re and Harvard University to develop a weather insurance solution HazeShield.
Wei Chenyang said that compared with large enterprises, insurtech start-ups continue to empower in all aspects, the survey found that insurtech companies have different attitudes towards the insurance value chain, empowering the insurance value chain accounted for 61%, deintermediation for customers accounted for 30%, subverting the insurance value chain accounted for 9%. Second, products and distribution accounted for 57 percent, enhanced business processes accounted for 22 percent, data and analytics accounted for 15 percent, and claims management accounted for 6 percent, depending on the different categories of insurtech enabling value chains.
At the end of the speech, Wei Chenyang said that we see that the golden age of insurtech, that is, the outbreak period, is beginning, mainly due to the significant improvement of protection needs and digital preferences, with the goal of being able to reach users more effectively and provide convenient and customized products or services. In this process, the core is that digitalization is king.
The Global Insurtech Conference is jointly sponsored by the financial community and the Administrative Committee of Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone, focusing on the innovative and integrated development of technology and insurance. Zhou Yanli, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and former vice chairman of the Insurance Regulatory Commission, He Zhujun, vice president of the China Insurance Asset Management Association, Rong Yongqi, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Li Lihui, head of the blockchain research group of the China Internet Finance Association and former president of the Bank of China, Wang Zhongmin, former vice chairman of the National Social Security Fund Council, Zhong Xiaolong, deputy director of the Management Committee of the Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone, Chen Zheng, chairman and CEO of the financial sector, Sun Qixiang, professor of the School of Economics of Peking University, Wei Chenyang, vice president of the Financial Technology Research Institute of Tsinghua University, Xu Xian, director of China Insurance Technology Laboratory of Fudan University, Ruan Qi, vice president of Chinese Life, Liu Yuanyuan, managing director of AIG Group and chief scientist of statistical machine learning, and dozens of representatives of "government, industry, academia and research" and industry experts attended the meeting to discuss and share the digital insurance, cutting-edge technology, insurance ecology and future insurance of the insurance industry.
This article originated from the financial world