4 Key Technologies for Capturing Insurance Growth Markets

EY has identified 17 rapid-growth markets besides the BRIC countries, and the technologies insurers can use to successfully sell product there.

Mexico, Thailand, Colombia and Indonesia are among 17 emerging "rapid growth markets" (RGMs) that challenge the growing BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) in opportunities for insurance growth, according to EY's recent "Waves of Change: The shifting insurance landscape in rapid growth markets" report.

While China will continue to play an dominant role in driving premium growth in international markets, new emerging markets offer an attractive combination of growth potential and risk profile that insurers can take advantage of, the report says.

"New waves of market liberalization and rapid consumer adoption of new technologies are opening additional markets such as Mexico and Thailand to non-domestic firms," says Shaun Crawford, EY's global insurance leader, in a statement. "Insurers will need to model the risks across all the geographies to clearly evaluate the drivers for growth and pick their targets carefully."

Dave Hollander, global insurance advisory leader at EY, wrote in an e-mail to Insurance & Technology that there are four key technology areas that insurers can leverage to make it easier to enter and grow in these markets:

Speed and consistency of common operating platforms (e.g., sales, underwriting, policy production, etc) across RGMs will improve ability to respond to regulatory demands while keeping operating expenses low

SaaS and other creative deployment mechanisms must be considered as infrastructure is time consuming and potentially quite costly in a new market scenario

Digital sales and service delivery options must be part of the core strategy for attracting and servicing customers in a mobile world

Effective and proactive use of analytics to look for early trends in persistency, cross selling, fraud and other risk factors is essential

Nathan Golia is senior editor of Insurance & Technology. He joined the publication in 2010 as associate editor and covers all aspects of the nexus between insurance and information technology, including mobility, distribution, core systems, customer interaction, and risk ... View Full Bio