The Final Frontier Of FinTech Disruption: InsurTech

Why has it taken so long for FinTech to reach the insurance industry? After all, insurance is no small sector, with plenty of facets and geographical reach—just the things that FinTech has already capitalised on in banking, fund distribution, and regulation, to name a few. But the fact is that, while insurance companies are already using various digital tools, nothing particularly revolutionary has rocked their business models or rattled the status quo. How come?

Mark Wilson, CEO of Aviva, gave three answers to this question when he spoke at the Web Summit last month: regulation, risk, and capital. To paraphrase him: the regulatory environment is tough on innovators in this area; risk in insurance is far costlier than in, for example, the taxi industry; and it takes hefty wallets to get things going in this giant industry.