Topic: Insurtech

The Financial Services and Markets Act (the Act) received Royal Assent on 29 June 2023. Although certain key provisions (for example the rules relating to critical third parties) came into force on the same date, the Government is taking a phased approach and other provisions will be brought into force on days to be appointed (if not already specified). From an insurance perspective, the provisions of the Act specifically concerning insurers relate to updating and clarifying existing arrangements under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) for those insurers in financial difficulty. These provisions will come into force on 29 August 2023.

Australia has a vibrant InsurTech ecosystem and similarities between the UK and Australian insurance markets, together with the promise of sunny weather, make the land down under a great option for InsurTechs looking to set up shop abroad.

The European Insurance and Occupational Pension Authority (EIOPA) has published its feedback statement on its 2021 discussion paper on blockchain and smart contracts in insurance. EIOPA received a number of responses to its earlier paper and has summarised these in the statement. Stakeholders were able to identify a number of use cases for blockchain. The paper also looks at crypto-asset use cases in insurance and considers risks and benefits.

Open Insurance is coming! On 24 January 2022, the Treasury released the Consumer Data Right (CDR) Strategic Assessment Outcomes Report (Outcomes Report). The Outcomes Report recommended expanding Australia’s CDR to Open Finance. The recommendation follows the launch of open banking in Australia in 2020, and a number of reports concerning the expansion of the CDR including the First Interim Report of Australia’s Select Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology handed down in September 2020.

2021 has been a big year for InsurTech, with investment reaching record highs across the globe and new products hitting the market. Investors are finally giving InsurTech the attention it deserves. As the year wraps up, our eyes and ears are tuned in to see what 2022 might hold. We caught up with Matthew Cheong, Junior Legal Counsel at QBE Asia, to hear his predictions.

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) has published a report called ‘Artificial intelligence governance principles: towards ethical and trustworthy artificial intelligence in the European insurance sector’.

In this special edition of FinTech Pulse, Madeline Bailey, co-head of Technology consulting is joined by one of the most influential women in European InsurTech, Parul Green, Board member of Insurtech Board, HM Treasury and Chief of Staff, APAC and Europe at AXA XL, to discuss the state of all things innovation and InsurTech in the Insurance sector.

In this series of blogposts, we explore some of the main types of decentralised finance (DeFi) applications (dApps), and key areas of legal risk that may be of particular relevance for that type of application or product.