CII Shaping the Future of Insurance conference: Matthew Hill's opening speech

Thank you for that kind introduction. For those of you I have been lucky enough to meet already in my first few months at the CII, it’s good to see you again. For those who I haven't yet met, I'd like to say a little about my background so you have an idea where I am coming from, as I am perhaps a little different in my experience to my predecessors.

I have spent my working life in public service. I worked in central government for many years on a wide range of issues from the future of the BBC to abolishing last orders in pubs. When I left the civil service I became a regulator, working successively in the fields of gambling, healthcare and legal services. 

Like everyone in this room I have been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to take from my career a great deal of learning, all of which I am now fortunate enough to be able to put at the disposal of the CII and the insurance profession it serves and from which it derives its strength.

Learning about things like:

• the importance of instilling a sense of purpose that excites people
• The importance of recognising the responsibility for using other people’s money - in the CII’s case members’ money well and making sure it is put to the best possible use
• And perhaps most importantly of all, the great force for good in society that professions and professionalism can be

It is my privilege to have the opportunity to be able to give all that and more to the CII. You can be assured of my commitment to you in the work you all do to improve financial resilience and underpin business certainty that makes such a fundamental contribution to prosperity.

Turning to the conference, we chose today’s theme because it is so reflective of the great force for good that insurance and the professionals who make it all happen can be.

It is a simple matter of fact that society could not function in the way we know it without insurance. Insurance is the great and often unsung enabler of commerce, of innovation and indeed of invention. It mitigates the chaos and turbulence of global events. And closer to home as individual human beings it connects us with our neighbours so that we can help them when something goes wrong in the expectation that our help might be reciprocated at some other point.

Our brilliant members are at the heart of all of this.

Today’s conference is a terrific reflection of the CII’s purpose – to bring insurance professionals together with sector leaders to help shape society’s response to some of the most important challenges it faces, and developing and promoting the insurance profession’s role as part of the solution.

Our three themes for today are trends, tech and talent.

Trends, because understanding them can help us see the future. Tech because it will help us build the future. And talent because it is the future.

It is something of a cliché to talk about a rapidly changing world. But it is also true.

Economic winds of change mean demand for insurance is rising, boosting economic growth, risk transfer and industry profitability; however, inflation and other factors have pushed up claims costs and premiums for consumers, heightening concerns about affordability, under-insurance and access to services.  

Slow but profound demographic changes, with populations aging and, in some important economies, fewer children being born, accompanied by medical advances that are changing the whole profile of societies with implications from the more direct – like demand for products to sustain people in older age, to less direct like the ability of economies to sustain themselves.

The collection of physical changes – not all of them taking the form of the visible catastrophes that fill our TV screens with increasing frequency – that that we parcel up as climate change. They are driving significant changes in underwriting practices and risk management strategies for insurance and reinsurance companies. They might also be driving unreasonable expectations of the insurance profession as the solution to all foreseeable problems. Add to that the heady and often distressing mix of political and geopolitical turmoil and conflict that seems a constant presence.

Turning to tech, it is hard to have any conversation these days without the initials A and I coming in to it and it will certainly feature today. Conversations about the opportunities, like improved customer service, pricing and fraud detection, new products and channels, but also about the risks. And sometimes whether something is a risk or an opportunity depends on where you sit. One person’s product personalisation is another person’s exclusion from cover.

In addition, the ever-increasing uptake of  ‘consumer-connected devices’ such as cars, fitness  trackers, home assistants and mobile phones is creating a vast amount of data that is allowing insurers to accurately evaluate and understand current customer and potential customer requirements.

We also know that ‘Big Tech’ – the likes of Google and Amazon – are interested in entering the sector. As the FCA’s CEO said earlier this year, ‘Big Tech’s growing emergence in financial services has already made life easier for consumers, but it is still unclear how valuable their data will become in financial markets.’

Data has the potential to increase societal confidence by ensuring risk is being appropriately mitigated and priced fairly, but we know that parts of the sector still struggles with data quality and legacy technology issues.

Turning finally to talent, we know that if the phrase “it’s a people business” were true of any profession, it’s the insurance profession.

So, stats that suggest 25% of the sector are due to retire within the next 10 years but only 4% of young people are considering a career in the insurance sector is a major cause for concern.

But while ‘tech is ‘sexy’, insurance is ‘steady’, according to the findings of one of our New Generation groups, which draw on some of the brightest and most able young insurance professionals, while others have noted the reputation and attractiveness of our profession is the biggest barrier to bringing in talent.

I see no reason why this should continue to be the case. I am a newcomer to the world of insurance and I have been inspired and moved by the many accounts of their careers that people have been kind enough to share with me.

And as a mature, confident profession it is important we face into the distance still to travel on diversity and inclusion too. While there has been much progress, recent data has shown that just 3% of senior positions in the UK insurance industry are currently held by individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds – less than half the national average. And on the other side of the scale is that insurance is the great unsung hero of social mobility, something we don’t always make enough of.

Bringing it all together, if the world is to continue to depend on insurance, as surely it must, insurance as a profession and as a sector and indeed as a lifeline for society, must face into and embrace that change. At the CII we would argue that no sector, no profession is as uniquely equipped to see the future as insurance and today is a great opportunity to demonstrate that it has the confidence to step up and shape that future.

And we will continue to support you in facing these challenges by:

• Really raising our game as a sector thought leader, helping to shape the national debate on financial services
• Overhauling our learning offer so it can be more relevant, attractive and ahead of the curve of national and global events
• Re-launching our corporate chartered offer so that all of you who have worked so hard to achieve it can be confident that it has value in the public eye
• Continuing to build our membership offer so it is much more effective in creating networks of committed professionals who belong to something really worth belonging to

Today is a great opportunity for you to help us shape the future. Have a great conference and have fun!