For non-life markets, insurers are currently facing many challenges, such as climate changes, catastrophe risk and other sensitive factors, which are resulting in low investment yields, increasing profitability challenges and a high degree of uncertainty surrounding the ultimate costs of COVID-related claims. Fierce competition and continued regulatory pressure add to the list of obstacles for the industry as we near the end of 2021 – and all this - after two years of pandemic-induced change.

In terms of technology, much progress has been made in the industry during this time, with investment made in new systems that help insurers gain competitive advantage and differentiate themselves from other carriers in a busy marketplace, to increase customer acquisition and retention, and seize new market opportunities.

It is almost one year since RNA Analytics extended its established expertise in risk modelling and data management to the non-life industry. Since which time, we have introduced a raft of new features and improvements; and established a new team of actuarial consultants to support our growing offering in this complex, specialist area, globally.

Non-life Standard Code is a collection of the loss reserving modules which combines powerful modelling and actuarial reserving methods with flexible mechanisms to structure, access and manage data sets, all within a governed framework.

The launch of the new code delivered a complete end-to-end risk modelling solution to the market, combining powerful reserving and data management to deliver efficient team-based reserving with enforced consistency - helping re/insurers meet regulatory requirements, and produce key financial modelling reports.

Since then, a second version of the code has been released in June 2021, featuring a new pre-built output reporting template and structural enhancement in preparing codes for clearer reporting purpose. What has not changed, however, are the power, flexibility and accessibility that are always synonymous across the RNA Analytics suite.

As with all our software, the non-life code reduces opportunity for human errors through use of automation, management of aggregation calculations across projects and use of a comprehensive programming interface that can be used to embed Non-life Standard Code in wider work scope and automate complex tasks.

The Non-life Standard Code calculates the best estimate liabilities based on various loss development methods and it can increase confidence in setting reserves through improved understanding of the variability/uncertainty around the estimated reserves, using its optional stochastic methods. The Non-life Standard Code can be fed into our current IFRS 17 and/or Solvency II packages directly, as well as can being used as a standalone reserving tool.

RNA continues to invest in the expert in-house consultancy to fortify our software offering; and to serve our growing non-life insurance client base, we have expanded our team of non-life experts, taking our offering to re/insurers across the globe.

The team is led by Kevin Hong, Non-life Principal Actuarial Consultant at RNA since February 2020, and our in-house expert on non-life models development and actuarial consulting.

Before joining RNA, Hong worked for Esure, AXA XL, Direct Line Group, RBS Insurance, and LIG Insurance in various areas such as capital modelling, internal model validation, pricing, product development and portfolio analytics.

Hong's team brings extensive experience to clients, alongside actuarial resources which that lead to better cost control and improved performance.

Most recently, the team has been helping clients to prepare for IFRS 17 and Solvency II/ICS, and regularly talks to clients about the potential of new data science technologies, including big data, AI and future preparations for tackling such challenges as cyber risk and natural catastrophe.

"The continued rise in competitive pressures within the non-life insurance industry has led to an increase in customers’ buying power and related changes in customer preferences," says Hong. "These environmental changes are driving innovation within the non-life industry and are forcing insurers to focus on customer-centric strategies.”

The investments we have made into our non-life offering and expertise over the past year are just the start, with a series of further developments already underway, including more models to provide solutions not only for reserving but also for pricing, underwriting, portfolio analysis, and even ERM in the future. Get in touch with our non-life experts to find out more.

Find out more about RNA’s service offerings on our solutions page here and download our latest white paper which explores the market in play as we approach the end of 2021, here.