The risk universe is growing - the changes in the macro-economy environment, technology and data are contributing to the expansion of the sphere of insurable risk, resulting in a shift of the insurability frontier.

Insurers and (re) insurers are tasked with understanding complex risks and developing solutions to manage risks and transfer them to capital - whether capital be their own, borrowed or from a third party.

Many major risk solutions will require private/public partnerships (PPPs) and will revolve around five key elements, featured in Figure 3 which will each be rapidly evolving thanks to new technologies and data:

• Risk awareness: without risk awareness there can be no development of solutions;
• Risk knowledge: awareness of risk must be complemented with the ability to measure, to quantify or qualify risk in order to design solutions, which (re)insurance can only be a part of;
• Risk management, risk transfer & risk financing: most solutions will come as integrating and blending these three ingredients.

This latest Focus, based on SCOR’s Annual Conference, examines more than a dozen hot topics facing (re)insurers today, including:

• Technology, Insurance and Insurability – Denis Kessler, Chairman and CEO, SCOR SE
• A South African Initiative on the Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI) with the United Nation – Ian Kirk, CEO, Sanlam
• Extending Insurance Coverage to an Additional 400 Million People by 2020 – Joan Lamm-Tennant, PhD, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Blue Marble Micro, Limited
• Defining Risk Finance in Developing Countries: (Re-)Defining the Role of the Private Sector – Olivier Mahul, Global Lead, Disaster Risk Finance, and Programme Manager, Disaster Risk Financing and Insurance Programme, World Bank
• Flood Insurance in the US: Building Political Coalitions to Expand Private Markets – Ray J. Lehmann, Director, Finance, Insurance & Trade Policy, R Street Institute
• Learning from Successful Partnering Approaches from other Industries – Nicolas Colin, Co-founder and Director of The Family
• Oasis Loss Modelling Framework: Where are we on this Open Source Initiative? – Paul Nunn, Head of Catastrophe Risk Modelling – SCOR Global P&C
• B3i, the Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative: Coming Soon Near You – Paul Meeusen, CEO, B3i