According to recent polls of insurance and reinsurance executives at the 2014 Property Casualty Insurers Assn. of America (PCI) Annual Meeting, including the third annual Guy Carpenter & Co. survey, cyber-attacks and terrorism are believed to be among the top emerging risks concerning the industry in the next year.
The Guy Carpenter & Co. survey was created to discover what reinsurance professionals believe are the key components and opportunities to profitable growth within the industry. 40% of the participants of the survey ranked cyber-attacks as the most threatening emerging risk, with terrorism and climate change following closely behind as the most threatening.
Guy Carpenter managing director and CEO of U.S. operations Andrew Marcell notes that cyber-attacks are one of the most serious economic and national security challenges facing governments and businesses around the world, not to mention the insurance industry.
So does this mean cyber security will have a huge impact on insurers and reinsurers profits? Cyber security concerns are certainly among the top liabilities, however survey findings also revealed that new products and access to new distribution channels, as well as expansion into new geographic markets will likely be the primary drivers of profitable growth in 2015.
Improving information technology remains a top priority for the insurance industry, with many survey respondents stating that they would gladly invest in this area of their business. As Andrew Marcell says, “The insurance industry continues to see significant opportunities to aggregate and analyze massive amounts of data and harness this information quickly to respond to change in the market and gain a competitive advantage.”
At PLRisk Advisors, we understand the emerging risks facing business owners and how this will affect your industry. In addition to Professional Liability Insurance, we offer comprehensive Privacy and Network Security, among other products. Please contact us today for more information at (855) 403-5982.
