2023-09-17-国际清算银行-从点击到索赔_大型科技公司进军保险的新兴趋势和风险_43页_1012kb

Summary of "From clicks to claims: emerging trends and risks of big techs’ foray into insurance"

Overview

The report examines how large technology firms (big techs) are entering the insurance sector, leveraging their technological prowess to transform the insurance value chain through digital platforms. While this expansion offers benefits like improved efficiency and consumer experience, it introduces new risks, including market dominance, data privacy issues, and potential threats to financial stability. The analysis covers big tech activities as insurers, intermediaries, and service providers, highlighting regional variations and regulatory challenges that require a holistic policy approach.

Key Findings on Big Tech Activities

• As Insurers: Big techs such as ZhongAn in China and others through subsidiaries or partnerships are entering the market, focusing on digital distribution of products like health and auto insurance. These ventures often aim to create self-sustaining ecosystems but face low profit margins and regulatory hurdles, remaining limited in scale.

• As Intermediaries: Entities like Ant Group and Tencent act as insurance marketplaces or embedded providers, facilitating sales through their platforms. This approach generates revenue through commissions and enhances consumer access but raises concerns over market control and fair competition.

• As Service Providers: Big techs supply critical services like cloud computing, data analytics, and cybersecurity to insurers. This support enables digitalization but introduces risks from concentration in third-party dependencies and data misuse.

Principal Risks and Challenges

• Market Concentration and Competition: Big techs' scale and data advantages can lead to monopolistic practices, potentially harming insurers and consumers through biased pricing or barriers to entry.

• Conduct and Data Risks: Digital distribution may enable mis-selling or inadequate disclosure, exacerbated by complex platforms. Data from big techs is vital for underwriting but risks unfair discrimination or privacy breaches if mishandled.

• Operational Vulnerabilities: Heavy reliance on big tech services increases risks from cyberattacks, technological failures, or interconnected failures between non-financial and financial activities.

Regulatory Approaches

Current regulations apply existing insurance principles but often fall short due to big techs' unique structures and cross-sectoral operations. Supervisors face difficulties overseeing group-wide risks, outsourcing relationships, and evolving digital trends. Proposed solutions include:

• Strengthening conduct of business rules for digital sales to ensure consumer protection.
• Enhancing outsourcing guidelines and cyber resilience requirements.
• Promoting international coordination to address regulatory gaps and prevent arbitrage.

Regional Insights

• Asia-Pacific Region: High activity driven by supportive regulations (e.g., China's virtual insurer framework) and digital infrastructure, with big techs dominating markets.
• North America and Europe: Focus on service provision due to stricter regulations and consumer trust in incumbents, leading to slower direct underwriting expansion.

Conclusions and Recommendations

Big techs can drive innovation in insurance but pose systemic risks that require updated regulatory frameworks. Key recommendations include developing sector-specific rules, fostering international standards, and enhancing supervision to balance innovation with consumer and financial stability.