Here's what Insurance CEOs are looking at in 2021

Tapan Singhel, MD & CEO, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance believes the insurance industry is correlated to the economy and as the economy revives, the insurance industry will grow as well.

He said, “As we step into the New Year, our focus areas would be to be better prepared for eventualities like pandemics and natural calamities, considering the increase in their frequency. Going forward, I believe the infrastructure development that’s happening in the country, increase in economic activity in Tier II and Tier III cities and the way the distribution is expanding with the help of technology in small towns will play a major role in industry’s growth.”

Mayank Bathwal, MD & CEO, Aditya Birla Health Insurance believes there will be growth as the penetration is small and a lot of white spaces are yet to be filled. He said, “Segments of customers either not insured and if insured they’re underinsured, people used to buy Rs 3-4 lakh insurance and it is now clearly visible that it is not adequate so buying is not about buying insurance but adequate insurance.”

He explained there are white spaces around the product line for e.g. OPD, 65% India’s health care expenditure is in the area of OPD which is not covered. He added, “Now digital and tele-medicine health delivery has opened up the space of OPD and you’ll see opportunities in that space along with disease specific products. As we increase distribution, bring new products so growth will be there in a highly aware environment. Even if the awareness comes down as Covid-19 tapers off, there’s a large number of customers still buying insurance.”

Vighnesh Shahane, MD & CEO at IDBI Federal Life Insurance believes one should not give up his/her aim on digital pace and keep taking giant leaps and strides in digitalisation. As one comes up on the other side of the pandemic, digitalization drive should go on.

He added, “Six months back it was a completely different scenario all the expectations back then have not been held up, persistency ratios are intact, businesses have held up, stock markets have held up, interest rates have stabilised. I think i will put my neck on the block and say that private life insurance industry is witnessing 10-15% growth in individual premium, I think next year I don’t see any reason why the industry can’t grow with all the four points (increased awareness, accelerated digital adoption, lower OPEX & positive moves by regulator towards digital enablement) at 20% for private life insurers.”

Naveen Tahilyani, MD & CEO at Tata AIA Life Insurance believes, digital, technology and analytics will drive the way forward on innovation. He’s seeing a lot of usage of AI and ML for distributor enablement and delivering tailored propositions to consumers—phygital will come of age. He added, “Insurance offerings will evolve to helping consumers prevent and manage health and wellness rather than just be passive payouts in case of events. Emphasis on protection will increase."

He sees the consumer today is more demanding and impatient than ever before and given consumer inclination for holistic wellness solutions, for the life insurance industry, the focus would be back on the core proposition of protection of life and health essentially meaning offering a holistic solution to customers.

Naveen said, “I see acceleration in use of digital to reach wide customer pools and using data and analytics to fine-tune propositions. 2021 will be the time to drive penetration deeper through virtual mediums in conjunction with existing physical channels Not just that, customer segmentation and offering relevant tailored propositions will become even more significant. Insurers will get more integrated with other health and wellness service providers to build ecosystems for consumers fulfilling the need for healthier, better and happier lives in a way like never done before.”

“I believe that consumer engagement should ascend to the next level, inspiring our consumers to lead healthier, happier lives, rather than focusing only on collecting premiums and settling claims,’’ added Naveen.

Munish Sharda, MD & CEO at Future Generali India Life Insurance sees continued robust demand for life insurance plans.

Sharda noted, “The industry will also benefit significantly from digital augmentation and adoption owing to COVID-19. Tools such as AI-driven underwriting, development of plug-n-play ecosystem of microservices for enabling new partnerships, integrated platforms, mobility solutions for agents and cutting edge programs for customer engagement, will be the need of the hour."

Sarbvir Singh, CEO at Policybazaar.com thinks 2021 will be an interesting year. He said, “Directionally it seems that the vaccine is reality and is now a question of time when it will be administered and at what pace the population will be covered. All these will be figured out as we go along but overall next year things will be better and bright. Hopefully it will be a normal year and a new set of buyers have come in and stay long.”

Singh echoes every industry leader's thought -- that we’re cautiously optimistic it’s hard to have a different outlook right now.

“Several key decisions taken in the past have made us market leaders today. Even one of those decisions taken incorrectly would have resulted in us being a less successful company. Doing the right things is more critical than doing things rightly,” asserted Samir Jain.

Source: The Economic Times