8DECEMBER 2020IN MY OPINIONThe Insurance Industry Must Open Mind to the Energy from InsurtechBy Clive O'Connell, Partner- Head of Insurance and Reinsurance, McCarthy DenningThe advent of insurtech has brought many fresh ideas to the seemingly staid world of insurance. In London, the centre of the world's international insurance activity, middle aged men in dark suits, ties and black shoes (never brown in town) now rub shoulders with much younger men and women dressed in jeans, branded t-shirts and trainers and with markedly different educational backgrounds.While the insurance industry must open its mind to the energy that comes from insurtech, it is equally necessary for insurtech to seek to understand the way in which insurance operates and the constraints that it can impose upon the carrying on of business.While it may appear, at first glance, that the seemingly outdated methods of the insurance industry are mired in the mental inflexibility and conservatism of the grey haired, mostly, men who run the industry, the reality is that they themselves are bound by a legal and regulatory infrastructure that is much older than the guardians of the market.Insurtech products are bound by the existing regulatory framework and law. It will take considerable time to change either. Therefore, insurtech products must conform with the existing infrastructure. This may be frustrating and Steven Jones
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