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This insurance professional took what she describes as a “calculated gamble” to go back to the roots of her insurance career, which so far has been paying off.
Roopa Malhotra (pictured), regional digital underwriting and product lead for Chubb Insurance in Singapore, says her insurance career path is somewhat unconventional. While most professionals begin with life or general insurance before moving into reinsurance, or into more complex fields such as insurance-linked securities (ILS), she shared that she did the reverse.
She first worked in the hedge fund industry, focusing on ILS, then became part of a team pricing for retrocessionary contracts. After that, she entered the reinsurance industry with MS Frontier Re (now MS Amlin) to do portfolio management and reinsurance pricing, then later primary insurance with AIG.
“It was quite literally going back to the roots,” Malhotra told Insurance Business. “It was a calculated gamble, which I am glad I took, despite everyone recommending against it at the time.”
Now at Chubb, she is responsible for curating insurance products and solutions for partners along with undertaking product development. She focuses on understanding the growing and untapped insurance needs of customers in the digital gig economy, as well as helping design and develop insurance solutions addressing these issues.
Through her work’s intersection with technology, Malhotra believes that despite the stereotype that insurance is boring or unattractive, opportunities are immense in the insurance industry, as it penetrates even more aspects of daily life.
“If considering a career in insurance, one should understand that in this day and age, the look and shape of insurance is changing,” she said. “We are seeing unconventional players entering the industry, and the scope for growth is incredible, and I think there has never been a better time to enter this sector.”
Malhotra thinks that insurance has expanded beyond the realm of traditional insurers, with the emergence of fintech/insurtech companies and non-insurance firms such as Grab and Amazon entering the arena.
“In short, the insurance sector itself is reshaping and seeping into other industries,” she said.
As head of digital underwriting, one of the main issues she identifies is making sure digital product development makes a real impact in the market, and that includes having sufficient grasp on technology and analytics.
“Traditional channels of insurance have always been push channels, she said. “However, digital has opened the flood gates of proactively reaching and connecting with consumers, at the critical moments of their digital lives, it’s not necessarily about just being visible in such digital touchpoints, rather being relevant.
“It is critical for insurance organizations to develop the ability to be present at every such opportunity, to protect or safeguard every big or small consumer need. Certainly, having the right foundations of technology and data analytics are the starting point.”
According to Malhotra, KYC, or know your customer, is one way that insurers can make sure that they have sufficient data. However, she disagrees with how banks have been handling it – by making customers fill out lots of forms.
“Rather, genuinely try to connect and get to know more about our customers,” she concluded. “Understanding their needs, drives, and motivations will help us connects the dots and offer the right solution. The one-size-fits-all approach that we traditionally have taken does not work any more.”
