An international insurance programme proposition built ‘from scratch’ delivers speed and accuracy

As businesses continue to expand their global footprint into new and emerging markets, the risks they face grow and change in both scope and complexity, placing greater demands on international insurance programmes to respond with more speed and accuracy.

Building an effective and fully-responsive international insurance programme is complex. A multinational company could have operations in anything from two to over 100 territories around the world. Accurate and up-to-date data on all locations, ranging from multiple risk exposures to local tax and regulatory regimes, will form the core of a reliable and robust international programme. In today’s fast-evolving business environment, regulations change constantly; tax and economies fluctuate; and risks are interconnected with many other threats. Capturing quality data and keeping it up to date represents one of the most significant challenges for risk and insurance managers when structuring an international insurance programme which is fit for purpose.

It is a challenge that cascades down to other areas, most notably, affecting the speed with which insurers can build a programme and resolve and settle claims in a timely fashion.

INACCURACIES EXCERBATE DELAYS

Take this common data scenario as an example. Data of all locations and risk exposures are collected by the client, passed on to the broker, delivered to the insurer and housed on a platform, in order to allow the structuring of an international insurance programme to begin. Eventually the structure of the programme is completed and instructions sent to all local offices. Each policy takes into account local currencies, exchange rates, regulations and tax regimes. The local client receives the policy and identifies a number of inaccuracies, built in at the point of data collection. The policy then comes back upstream for review, adding significant delays to the construction of an international insurance programme.

Inaccuracies exacerbate delays to claims, too. Think about the steps that we – risk/insurance manager, broker and insurer – have to take to investigate and settle a claim. Risk and insurance managers, in consultation with their internal and external stakeholders, first collate all details of the incident. This information is then passed onto the insurer and their claims teams to review and settle. If there are delays at any one point of this process, days or weeks can be added to each leg of the journey.

Here is where an integrated data collection and management process is critical to delivering on speed and accuracy. Here is where we want to help our clients.

DELIVERING ON OUR AMBITIONS

At Swiss Re Corporate Solutions, we ’started from scratch’. Having assessed the entire international insurance programme journey, we build programmes through the lens of our clients’ challenges, so that we can truly address the core data complications that they routinely face.

With state-of-the-art technology, we can enable data integration from multiple sources bringing together market intelligence, tax calculators, and risk profiles, which are underpinned by a premium allocation tool that helps us to structure compliant and well-coordinated programmes.

Transparency is key to deliver on speed and accuracy. Through our client portal (PULSE) we aim to connect all key stakeholders: risk and insurance manager, broker and underwriter. In addition our dedicated international business expert teams can address issues or questions with quick response and resolution times; allowing risk managers to track progress at every step leading to speedy policy issuance and claims settlement.

Because we’ve built our integrated technology platform on today’s technology in a green field environment, we have the flexibility to provide a refreshing approach to the entire life cycle of an international programme.

It means we can tackle complex risks more effectively, offering a tailored approach that is backed by our integrated platform and our Swiss Re heritage.

It means that through the simplicity of our integrated approach, we can make complexity our friend.

It means speed. It means accuracy.

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