Interview – Nick Luo
This month we speak to Nick Luo, senior analyst at Tsinghua Univeristy’s Insurance and Pension Research Center, about the efforts to mitigate natural disasters in China and specifically, the role insurers will play.
1.Despite impacting millions of people annually, Natural Catastrophe insurance is an often overlooked segment, how do you see the role that digital insurance initiatives will have on NatCat prevention, response and recovery.
In China, natural catastrophe insurance has traditionally been the remit of governments and state owned insurers. However, recognizing the role that the private sector has played in addressing other societal challenges, the government is now encouraging public private partnerships and incentivizing private re-insurers to enter the market by making previosuly confidential natcat data available for modeling by private insurers. In terms of the role that digital insurance will play in this, the theme of public private partnerships will again be the foundation for progress. For example, using WeChat to warn rural communities of earthquake aftershocks is useless without the capital intensive infrastructure required to establish earthquake detection networks. Additionally, the use of drones for relief efforts and the co-ordination of search/rescue teams requires close co-ordination with government departments and local organizations.
2. Have any Nat Cat startups caught your eye:
Due to the capital intensive nature of NatCat prevention technologies, and the long time horizons involved before monetization, there has been relatively little startup activity yet. However, the ability to access data from government institutions and departments is allowing startups to deliver “last mile” innovation with regard to NatCat management. WeatherTech is one of these startups, combining government held data about real time weather formations with a simple user interface delivered through WeChat.
3. You mention public private partnerships as being crucial to NatCat cover, are there any particularly notable ones from China?
Several re-insurers including RGA, Swiss Re, Munich Re and Sirius Re are now offering NatCat underwriting in China. Of these, the most interesting example of a public / private partnerships is Sirius Reinsurance, a U.S based reinsurer, an particularly interesting example as they are working with the government of Ningbo, a city to the south of Shanghai, to provide crop insurance and natural catastrophe coverage across the region. This initiative demonstrates that a U.S reinsurer with little presence in China is capable of partnering with a provincial government to deliver NatCat underwriting expertise. Of course, several Chinese insurers also have this expertise, but the market size combined with local government requirements means it’s possible for multiple re-insurers to
4. Several insurers have recently started modelling historical natural catastrophe data in a bid to enter the sector, how will this change the natcat market in China.
Yes several Chinese insurers and re-insurers have entered the NatCat market offering everything from crop insurance directly, re-insurance and technical services to property insurers. The common denominator, and a key differentiator for western reinsurers, is the use of government held NatCat data to experience that westerns reinsurers have modeling NatCat risk profiles around the world. China United, PICC and China Life have historically carried the burden of NatCat coverage. Additionally, now private insurers are leveraging data analytics and government incentives to enter the natural catastrophe.
5. Finally, do you see any chance that the BAT will take natural catastrophe efforts as part of their corporate social responsibility:
As far as I’m aware, both Tencent and Alibaba have initiatives to alleviate the effects of natural catastrophes in China. First, Tencent is perhaps the most active with typhoon, earthquake and landslide warnings being pushed through WeChat in real time to allow those in the path of typhoons, landslides and in the vicinity of earthquakes to evacuate. Furthermore, Tencent’s Chief Experience Officer, David Wallerstein, and is pioneering a renewed focus o. For Alibaba’s part, it’s ‘Internet-plus-Agriculture’ program, in partnership with U.S based AGGO is providing high-horsepower combines and bailing equipment to Chinese farms through Taobao’s rural service centers that also provide support and information regarding ploughing and harvesting best practices to farmers.
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