Roger Bickmore

The Financial Conduct Authority is demanding higher standards of consumer protection from insurers, which could lead to greater customer engagement and understanding.

Building, acquiring or even renting an international network is increasingly becoming a must-have for any underwriting business attracted to customers beyond the small-and-medium-enterprise and mid-market audience.

If the insurance industry is seen as the fusion of human and financial capital, then the willingness to embrace data analytics is strikingly uneven.

As the digital revolution continues to progress, insurers must embrace and harness the power of technology.

A safe new-year prediction is that we shall see more insurers getting into trouble, paying the price for over-expansion.

Changes for distributors of insurance products may be coming in 2014.

Breakdowns in financial controls can be disastrous for insurers.

Singapore now hosts a vibrant maturing reinsurance market with depth in expertise, capacity and reach.

With their history and international reach as a foundation, deepening customer relationships is a fertile source of competitive advantage for the Lloyd’s market.

The top 10 underwriting firms employ more than two-thirds of the underwriters included in a recent ranking of the top 50 underwriters.

The prospect of AIG retaliating and escalating previous skirmishes with Berkshire Hathaway has already intensified downward pressure on rates.

The wider market is potentially transitioning to a business model of managing multiple sources of outside capital.

Has the time arrived for specialist wholesale and reinsurance companies to examine their organizational structures and weed out redundant management and administrative costs?

The decision announced last week by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to conduct a market study of add-on financial products is raising one or two eyebrows within the industry.

Where once underwriters called the tune, it is now the distributors who have leverage and are setting the ground rules.