The most significant ethical theme that insurers need to address over the next three years is data ethics. Yet it is complex and nuanced, so insurers need to think carefully about how to organise their response.
(read more)October 14, 2020
A Complete List of All Posts
The UK regulator’s decision to ban ‘price walking’ in general insurance is significant. Yet that significance is wider than simply how policies are priced. I explore those signals so that insurers can start preparing now.
(read more)September 30, 2020
You’d be surprised how codes of ethics vary across the insurance sector. What matters though is whether your firm’s code of ethics is good enough for the ethical challenges it is facing.
(read more)September 21, 2020
As a leading US insurer announces that it will remove credit scores from its pricing by 2025, there’s plenty of evidence that UK insurers need to be subject their use of credit data to serious review.
(read more)September 8, 2020
The recent exam grades debacle in the UK provides insurance people with lessons on what will befall them if current trends in claims practices continue.
(read more)September 1, 2020
Insurance people used to think of pricing as just a market thing. Now they recognise that fairness has to be factored in as well. Yet the ethics of insurance pricing has other dimensions that need to be factored in. If they’re not, the current pricing review will take even longer and become even more tortuous.
(read more)August 18, 2020
The regulator’s new guidance on vulnerability presents insurers with some serious questions to address. Understanding the ethical context from which they emerge will help your firm really get to grip with the issues.
(read more)August 10, 2020
The need for annual or long term insurance policies is being questioned. A new temporality of insurance is emerging, with significant ethical implications.
(read more)July 15, 2020
Cognitive diversity can be hugely influential when it comes to ethics. Views are encouraged, voices heard and challenges met. In such changing times for insurance, this matters
(read more)July 9, 2020
Conflicts of interest are an exponential ethical risk because of the powerful signals they send out about how your firm is managed. This creates all sorts of reputational risks.
(read more)June 24, 2020
Nudging is a concept at the heart of much ‘new thinking’ about insurance. Yet it’s a complex thing and insurers need to take care when using it in the design of new products and services.
(read more)June 15, 2020
We will soon see some big changes to the way in which the use of genetic information by UK insurers is regulated. It will be a different world, and insurers need to start preparing for it now.
(read more)May 26, 2020
A buzz phrase in the insurance market at the moment is ‘ecospheres of prevention’. It sounds like exciting stuff, but it is also replete with questions of ethics and power.
(read more)May 13, 2020
An influential narrative has emerged within insurance in recent years, centred upon the notion of behavioural fairness. It’s a narrative that could determine how insurance evolves over the next decade. The problem is that it’s a narrative with significant flaws.
(read more)April 29, 2020
Ethics training is a waste of time, unless it has an impact. All very good you might say, but what evidence is there for that impact? Detailed research in US financial services makes that clear.
(read more)April 14, 2020
It is in times like the present that the reputation of the insurance sector will be defined. Here are some thoughts on ethics, insurance and the current pandemic.
(read more)March 19, 2020
Improving a firm’s ethical culture will succeed only if these two barriers are addressed. This week’s blog post looks at what to look for and where to start looking.
(read more)March 17, 2020
Telematics features regularly now in the business and technology media. And academic institutions are having their say too. Yet all too often, the influence that telematics is having is underestimated.
(read more)March 4, 2020
‘Not our problem’ is the conclusion the UK regulator has reached about personalisation, the most fundamental change happening in insurance. So why is the FCA being so myopic? And how should insurers respond?
(read more)February 25, 2020
Signposting is being set up across a variety of retail insurance markets. The aim is to help consumers find the cover they need. Yet signposting is also a symptom of a stratifying market and that comes with all sorts of ethical implications.
(read more)February 18, 2020
The biggest ethical exposure facing insurers over the next 24 months will come from claims practices. It deserves to be one of the big financial risks that insurers typically detail in their annual report. So why are ethical storm clouds hanging over claims?
(read more)February 12, 2020
When does a firm become an insurer? And what is insurance? These are not nebulous questions. Data and analytics makes it hugely important that there be clarity around them.
(read more)January 29, 2020
Why are so many ethical challenges being faced by insurers at the moment? Has the three lines of defence model failed? If so, what can insurers do to make it work?
(read more)January 22, 2020
Insurers are facing a challenge to how they have been managing discrimination across their business. They should treat it seriously, for it has powerful backing and could have serious repercussions.
(read more)January 14, 2020
2020 will be an eventful year for insurers. During the many years I’ve been tracking the ethical challenges facing insurers, never before have I seen so many issues demanding attention. Some firms will find the learning curve steep and challenging.
(read more)January 6, 2020
Reinsurers are an influential bunch. This makes their approach to data ethics important. So it’s troubling then that their messaging seems to be so mixed
(read more)December 11, 2019
Pricing is now judged to be a prudential risk. Insurers need to handle it with care, for its ethical side makes it more nuanced than many realise.
(read more)December 3, 2019
Privacy enhancing analytics like homomorphic encryption seem to offer much to insurers, yet they also have wider implications that firms need to consider as part of their wider focus on data ethics.
(read more)November 26, 2019
A challenge like data ethics needs insurance executives to be more like decision architects. This will have a deeper and longer lasting impact on a key theme of 2020.
(read more)November 12, 2019
Insurers could soon find themselves having to defend their extensive processing of consumer data. This is yet another consequence of the current pricing review.
(read more)October 29, 2019
Data ethics is now a regulatory priority for the FCA. And the TCF framework is being positioned as the means for delivering it. That would be a mistake, for these five reasons
(read more)October 14, 2019
The use of genetic test results in insurance is controversial. Yet doesn’t an agreement deal with this? Only partially it turns out. The gap is about to be exploited.
(read more)October 2, 2019
Why are so many loss adjusting firms being secretive about their codes of ethics? Few put them in the public domain, but keeping them under wraps doesn’t help build trust in their work.
(read more)September 25, 2019
Mis-selling has been a perennial problem for the insurance market. In the last couple of years, the UK regulator’s approach has changed, radically. Intermediaries and representatives should prepare for a new regulatory experience.
(read more)September 4, 2019
Data ethics principles are important for a sector like insurance. What also matters is the process by how you develop them. The process shapes the outcome, for better and, probably in EIOPA’s case, for worse.
(read more)August 27, 2019
The political writing is on the wall for the loyalty penalty. Yet the regulator will still face some difficult challenges to getting their response right. At least they’ve now got some powerful friends to help them.
(read more)July 23, 2019
What are the fundamental challenges that data and analytics pose to insurance? Here are six that I think raise profound questions for the sector.
(read more)July 15, 2019
Conflicts of interest are a feature of most insurance markets. And a vital step in managing them is helping people move from recognising to reporting them. Yet that isn’t as easy as most might think.
(read more)July 10, 2019
Ethics training is compulsory in several countries’ insurance markets. So what happens when decisions are increasingly being made by algorithms? Should they have compulsory training too?
(read more)July 2, 2019
What is an insurer there for? It’s a question that every insurer, new and old, needs to understand and address with honesty, for it drives how a business is run.
(read more)June 25, 2019
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