The CEO and MD of a major regional insurer has said that data will be critical to the future of the insurance industry.
Peter Harmer, CEO and managing director of regional firm
IAG, said that access to data will be critical in the future of the industry.
“Data is a lynchpin to making important decisions down the track,” Harmer told
Insurance Business.
“Access to data, reliable accurate data, is critical.”
IAG, which has operations in Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Thailand, Indonesia and Australia, revealed in a new report that Australia has AU$326.6 billion worth of GD at risk from natural disaster and Harmer said that better use of data and analytics could help mitigate these risks.
Using more than nine million records, the firm was able to create a set of interactive maps alongside the report which show the power big data can have for the insurance industry.
“I think that is the pointy end of the big data,” lead author of the report Terry Rawnsley, national leader of economic and social analysis at SGS Economics and Planning told
Insurance Business.
“Taking the nine million records we started with and putting them in a format that anyone can understand what the risk is in their area. Those maps are a very powerful information tool.”
Big data continues to warrant big investment from some of the biggest names in the insurance industry with insurtech firm ZhongAn Online Property & Casualty announcing this week that it has launched a new wholly owned subsidiary which is designed to be data driven
With a recent Timetric survey finding big data and analytics will have the biggest impact on the insurance industry, this investment and the use of big data shows no signs of slowing down.
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