Harnessing Technology to Narrow the Insurance Protection Gap

Foreword
Anna Maria D’Hulster
Secretary General
The global insurance protection gap is one of the most pressing issues facing our society.
It leads to a severe lack of societal resilience in many developing and emerging countries,
where insurance today hardly plays any role when it comes to mitigating the impacts of
natural disasters or pandemics, to name just two of the major societal risks. More often
than not, all economic losses remain basically uninsured. This situation, however, is not
limited to emerging markets. A recent example is the devastating earthquake that hit
central Italy on 24 August 2016 where about 90% of total losses were uninsured. Therefore,
(re)insurers need to further strengthen their contribution to society’s resilience to disasters
as well as to creeping developments such as ageing or longevity. More broadly, insurance
has a fundamental role to play in facilitating and protecting the economic emancipation of
people from poverty across the globe by offering a safety net against external shocks such
as sickness and accident.
With this in mind, this publication focuses on how digital technology can be a lever for
the insurance industry to narrow protection gaps in both mature but also especially in
developing insurance markets by enhancing the awareness, affordability and attractiveness
of insurance products and solutions. This report also offers an in-depth review of key
concepts of insurance economics, practitioner approaches and specific case studies. Its
findings were complemented and validated through 23 executive and expert interviews.
The use of technology is one of the most relevant and topical dimensions of the global
protection gap debate. With this report, we want to highlight, gauge and quantify winwin
situations for insurers, policyholders and societies at large. On this basis, we hope
to sensitise the global (re)insurance community, governments, lawmakers, regulators,
standard-setters, development banks, supranational organisations and consumers to the
enormous leverage technology can deploy to make societies more resilient through risk
mitigation, and protection products and solutions.
This publication would not have been possible without substantial inputs from The Geneva
Association Members’ companies, other insurers and reinsurers, technology and insurtech
firms, consultants, the investment community and academia. We are very grateful for their
support and contributions.
Harnessing Technology to Narrow the Insurance Protection Gap
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