Insurance firms tap into big data for new products

Total assets of the 50 largest insurers went down 6.47% to $217b in 2019.

The Pan Island Expressway (PIE), particularly eastbound near Adam Road, is identified as the most dangerous spot for motorists in Singapore, according to a data tool developed by life insurer AXA Singapore. This consolidates claims to map out accident hotspots in the country, a part of a push to use more data to help insurers better connect with customers.

Singapore Business Review’s annual survey of the insurance sector revealed the total assets of the 50 largest insurance providers in 2018 equalled $217b, a 6.47% dip from last year’s $232b. The top five largest insurers went unchanged. Great Eastern Life Assurance maintained its hold on the top spot with $51b in total assets, up from $49b in 2017. AIA Singapore ended up in second place with a 2.27% decrease in total assets from $44b to $43b. Prudential Assurance Co. Singapore placed third with $38b in total assets. NTUC Income Insurance Co-operative Limited finished fourth with $35b in total assets, and Manulife Singapore rounded up the top five with $11b in total assets, a 22% in 2018 increase from $9b in 2017.

Despite the shrinking asset value, the big players continue to prioritise the digitalisation of their offerings. AXA chief customer and operations officer Jeremy Ong says the insurer’s Give Data Back programme aims to help motorists better understand the risks they will face on the roads across Singapore by sharing data, such as the frequency of occurrence of a motor accident and the average cost of a motor accident claim.

According to its website, the programme displays quantitative data which includes body injury and vehicle damage for private individuals from 2015 to 2017. It also scales AXA’s location-specific accident data to match data from the Singapore Police Force. The insurer is also offering training in Python basic programming and Tableau analytics, and mentoring their data and actuarial teams.

They have also partnered with other startups such as mobilityX, a startup backed by local transport operator SMRT and Toyota Tsusho, to provide insurance coverage for users through its all-in-one transport app Zipster. “The app allows commuters in Singapore to plan, book and pay for their journeys across a variety of transport modes including buses, trains, shared mobility devices, private hire vehicles and car sharing services,” Ong said. The insurer also collaborated with merchant app Carousell to allow customers to purchase second-hand car and motorcycle insurance and policy documents within five minutes. The initiative was launched in January 2019.

Your life journey, in data
But AXA is not the only insurer taking advantage of data to address specific needs of consumers. Great Eastern Life is using data to help its customers visualise their life journey, said managing director for group marketing Colin Chan. The GreatAdvice financial planning tool, which they rolled out in April 2019 to their 1.6 million-customer base, streamlines the onboarding of clients with an agent scanning a client’s National Registration Identity Card (NRIC) using an iPad, thereby reducing application time by 20%.

Another initiative launched in May 2019 was GREAT Family Care, which Chan described as “the first in-market critical illness plan covering three generations in a family within a single policy” and gives senior citizens coverage without underwriting needed. For a premium of $103 per month, benefits include complimentary coverage for current and future children, up until the age of 18, of up to $100,000 against 53 critical illnesses and 25 juvenile conditions, including asthma and epilepsy.

Cyber insurance
Whilst the majority of offerings still cater to the largest business segments, new products on cybersecurity and climate change are now in the nascent stage of their development cycles. Ho Kai Weng, chief executive of General Insurance Association of Singapore, noted that more insurers have committed to developing affirmative cyber programmes. This is to make clear whether a policy covers cyber-related risks or not.

However, these products are still in the early stages in the development cycle, and awareness and take-up of these policies are still low in Singapore and globally, Ho added.

Insurers who have developed cybersecurity products include AXA, Tokio Marine, and AIG. For instance, Tokio Marine’s TM Cyber 365 provides coverage for system and data restoration and protection against cyber threats, but not for broken hardware and physical power failures which compromise a group’s security.