PwC names the date for insurance summit in Bermuda
The PwC Insurance Summit will take place in Bermuda on November 7, 2019.
The conference will include a conversation with Curtis Dickinson, Bermuda's minister of finance, as well as a number of senior re/insurance executives including: Brian Duperreault, president and CEO of AIG; Dennis Mahoney, executive chairman at RFIB Group and former head of Aon UK; Nigel Frudd, CEO at Sompo International; Greg Hendrick, CEO at AXA XL; Mary Forrest, president and CEO at Munich Re, North America (Life and Health); John Berger, CEO at Ascot Reinsurance; and Pete Wilson, CEO at AXIS Insurance.
The agenda will address the most pressing issues in the market today, including regulation, climate change, cyber risk, industry disruption and digital transformation. It will also discuss the urgent need for business and technology modernisation, which is “the greatest threat to the global insurance industry,” according to the Insurance Banana Skins 2019 report, published by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (CSFI) in association with PwC.
Surveys of the Bermuda re/insurance market specifically showed regulation, climate change and cyber risk were the top three concerns on the island, with PwC noting interesting differences between the concerns in Bermuda and those in the sector globally.
“The number one risk faced here is regulation, followed by climate change and then cyber risk,” said Arthur Wightman, PwC Bermuda leader. “Most notable was the positioning of technology risk – number one globally – down in fifth position here. However Bermuda did place cyber risk at number two, the same as the world ranking, given concern over the magnitude and linkage of exposure.”
Concern about climate change was higher in Bermuda than the industry average, with many in the industry concerned insurers need to do more to address the long-term impact of climate change, said Wightman.
“But Bermuda’s highest risk was regulation, mainly because of the volume of change and associated cost. One respondent told us that regulation is a strangling of our ability to operate effectively across jurisdictions and leverage our capital, and presents a huge and expensive problem,” Wightman added.
The event is presented by the Financial Times.