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By Pim Koorn, Product Director, Business Banking at Backbase

With the fourth quarter quickly approaching, banks are increasingly tasked with the difficult project of evaluating how to best support their small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) customers, all of whom are working diligently to re-emerge from 2020’s challenges and adapt to the new normal that is taking shape.

Responding to today’s current demands means that flexibility, innovation and personalisation are key requirements of any technology partner. Banks are considering how to best provide the customisable solutions their clients need in today’s current environment. SMEs are increasingly seeking partners that can provide the specific working tools that meet their fluctuating requirements. No one SME is alike. Whether they are reaching for new digital invoicing tools or seeking real-time onboarding solutions, banking partners that can best support their customers at every turn in their digital journey will remain a trusted partner during the collective recovery period.

The coronavirus pandemic has also put a newfound strain on how SMEs are managing their day-to-day operations and has significantly shaped the way SMEs are looking at their technology. In a PwC study from April of 469 SMEs on how banks can help businesses manage the rocky waves of the pandemic, the majority of respondents noted that the ability of a banking partner to tailor its support was critical to retaining the SME as a client. More than half of respondents (61 per cent) said personalised customer experience was core to the banking relationship.

These survey results underscore how a customer-centric focus, instead of a product-centric one, is the key to banks being able to optimise client relationships. Banks are already working to better understand their SME customers’ specific ways of working, but being able to efficiently cater to these needs lies in embracing technology and innovation.

By digitising paper-based banking processes, SME’s will be able to reallocate their limited time toward more important business-critical tasks. SMEs spend 74 per cent of revenue on non-core activities like bookkeeping and legal and 26 per cent on core activities that make them money, according to McKinsey. Implementing slick and user-friendly platforms can help banks remove friction and provide a more seamless experience for their clients, creating the efficiencies these businesses require.

Another way banks can help support SME clients is by prioritising optimisation. Digital-first banking platforms help solve some of the day-to-day hurdles that SMEs currently face, with solutions such as digital onboarding, digitised loan applications and digital customer signing processes. By empowering SMEs with the digital tools they need to reduce processing times from days into minutes, banks can make themselves indispensable as value-add technology partners.

Every business is currently looking for ways to streamline their operations. But banks that operate within legacy systems run the risk of not meeting the expectations of modern SME owners. By offering digital-first platforms, banks can provide SMEs with the underlying technology infrastructure that helps take the stress out of their finances. Providing access to secure and seamless mobile money management tools, banks can make SME’s lives easier – from bill payments to invoicing, and payroll to card management.

Lastly, banks that integrate new processes around transparency and real-time data will be better placed to cement themselves as long-term partners. Accessible, actionable data is how SMEs stay up to date, and leveraging real-time liquidity management tools that are backed by reporting and analytics are key to the financial health of these businesses.

With Q4 upon us, banks are understandably focused on how to best support their clients during this pivotal time. And as SMEs turn to technology to help them navigate these challenging times, banks can put their best foot forward by continuing to prioritise digital-first, customer-first services.

Pim Koorn
Product Director, Business Banking
Backbase

by George Brostoff, CEO & Co-Founder, SensibleVision

The launch of the Samsung S20 phone (and the release of the new Apple phone that’s expected to come out in the fall) have once again brought facial recognition back into the public eye.

It’s one of those technologies that we all just take for granted, but how does it actually work not only for phones but for devices such as door locks, security cameras, or even automobiles? And are the common perceptions of facial recognition even accurate? Let’s look at some of the myths and facts:

Myth #1: Facial recognition is racially biased.

Fact: There has been a lot of news coverage about how facial-recognition systems only work for people with lighter skin, and some have concluded the technology is racially biased. This is has been partially fostered by what turned out to be a controversial art project collaboration between a Microsoft researcher and an American artist.

Perceived issues with racial profiling and AI are often the result of the lack of diversity in the database that occurs when developers prioritize creating a large database over a more varied one. Lighting can also play a part, as evidenced by research of Joy Buolamani. The MIT Media Lab researcher found that some cameras had difficulty interpreting the composition of facial features on individuals with darker skin tones, leading to inconsistent results. However, there are currently facial recognition solutions available that provide consistent results, regardless of the subject’s complexion, as developers learn how to work with a variety of faces and lighting conditions.

Myth #2: Facial recognition can be easily hacked.

Fact: While many implementations have proven to be insecure and can easily be hacked by photos, masks, or videos, this is not inherent to face recognition as a concept, but to the vendor’s technology and approach. Simply put, bad technology doesn’t work very well, but good systems do.

Facial recognition technology is rapidly improving to the point that many systems can detect minor changes in appearance, such as glasses, facial hair, makeup, and even partial obstructions. Advances such as “active liveness detection,” where a user executes an action such as squinting, blinking, or making a face, can render it far more difficult for hackers to spoof a facial recognition system; combined with “passive liveness detection,” which employs internal algorithms to detect imposters, it’s no easy feat for hackers to successfully bypass facial recognition systems.

In some instances, storing biometric information, such as face templates, locally and subsequently sharing that information only with authorized devices, may be more secure and less susceptible to hackers (albeit potentially less convenient) than storing that info centrally on the cloud. If vendors are cognizant of potential issues and implement preventative security measures accordingly, facial recognition technology is no easier to hack than other, comparable systems.

Myth #3: Facial recognition will always be a fringe technology because people are worried about their privacy.

Fact: While face recognition privacy is a hot topic in the news, hundreds of millions of people use it daily to access their phones and interact with other devices. Where transparency, speed and high security is desired, almost nothing can provide the same level of convenience and accuracy.

Facial recognition tech is already far more ubiquitous than one might think. While some jurisdictions, such as the city of San Francisco, have placed a ban on agencies such as law enforcement and transport authorities from employing facial recognition tech, it’s exploding in industries and fields as diverse as retail, road safety, home security, and even agriculture, where farmers are using it to identify and track animals, help mitigate the spread of herd-killing diseases unintentionally transmitted by workers, and measure an animal’s vital health information.

While the general public is often wary of the implementation of facial recognition tech by sectors such as law enforcement and the military, its unmatched expedience, precision, and practicality mean that people are increasingly open to incorporating such technology into their daily lives.

Myth #4: Facial recognition doesn’t work well in low-light situations.

Fact: Ironically, Some facial recognition technologies actually work better with less light! This may sound counterintuitive, but with the right technologies the darkest night or even the brightest sunlight need not reduce the accuracy or performance.

Low light conditions shouldn’t be a barrier to the functionality of 3D imaging. Problems with elements such as accuracy and depth manifest when infrared oversaturation occurs – such as when users whip out phones or other devices in full sun or near highly reflective surfaces. These options tend to test well in the lab, but not so well on the beach or next to plate glass windows. Fortunately, many developers have taken note of this and managed to work around the problem to ensure that the technology functions in a range of settings and locations – be they a cave at midnight or a desert at high noon.

Myth #5: Facial recognition is only for high-end devices.

Fact: Cameras are being included in most everyday devices. And the computing power to accurately process those images is already present.

This means facial recognition technology is only likely to increase in popularity – and decrease in cost. You’ll find it embedded not just in law enforcement security tech but in products as common as door locks and restaurant payment systems, as well as in health care screening devices and programs and in retail stores. You may be surprised to learn that your phone, laptop, or tablet already feature facial recognition software, or the capacity to incorporate it. Essentially, if a device has a camera, it’s probably capable of employing some kind of facial recognition technology – if it doesn’t already.

By Brian Coburn, CEO at Bridge

The ability of COVID-19 to dramatically change consumer buying behaviour continues to challenge the e-commerce world.

Lockdown restrictions, customer anxiety over physical spaces, and increased screen time across all demographics has created an e-commerce boom of unprecedented proportions. Online operations have been tested to the limits and even the most traditional businesses have found themselves forced to pivot and innovate to find new ways of engaging customers. For many retailers, e-commerce has gone from a secondary channel to becoming the primary connection to customers, which makes a strong, resilient online payment structure even more critical than ever to capture every possible transaction opportunity.

Amidst the chaos, many fledgling payment trends have accelerated and previously niche innovations have received a boost.

Consumers have been prompted to try out new or alternative mechanisms such as mobile wallets, payment services, person-to-person transactions and order-ahead apps as they adapt to the new, socially distanced ‘normal’. As much as we all want to see the back of this pandemic, it is unlikely we will see a full retreat from online retail and many of the new payment provisions that have swiftly gained popularity.

Now the ball is in the e-commerce court to catch up and keep customers spending online. It demands a reliable mechanism to minimise cart abandonment and incomplete transactions, the ability to take payments in more varied, innovative and flexible ways, and processes for collecting data to understand what has worked – or not – and why.

None of this is simple or straightforward. In fact, a relatively new term ‘payment orchestration’ is likening the need for management and integration of the many active parts and processes involved in transactions to the task of conducting an orchestral performance. It reflects the challenge of accommodating a growing array of customer payment preferences while also navigating the increasingly complex and fragmented integrations associated with needing to connect to different payment services.

In times of uncertainty, we look for what we can control. The same mentality is apparently behind the rush to stockpile toilet rolls in the early days of the pandemic. But through the lens of e-commerce, control – and resilience – are exactly what businesses need to shore up. With payment orchestration, vendors regain ownership of their payment platform and it puts the complexities of dealing with multiple payment service providers back under their control. E-commerce vendors can then achieve a much clearer, consolidated view of the whole payments infrastructure and support the speed, convenience, personalisation and trust that customers want from online retail.

In the ‘new normal’, these will be the most important influences on the ways in which people choose to shop and engage online and, ultimately, pivotal in the success of e-commerce operations.

Brian Coburn
CEO
Bridge

Bridge is a new payment orchestration layer for e-commerce enterprises that want to unlock the potential of existing and new digital payment services. Bridge has been created to put payment control in the hands of the merchant. Its single integration layer delivers more control over payment service providers, consolidates internal reporting, builds resilience and enhances the ability to test new payment innovations and opportunities at speed.

By

C M Grover, MD, IBSFINtech

Outlook for the Corporates of the After-COVID-19 Era

Clear sky, empty streets, people locked down in their houses, economy sliding down – does it sound like a doomsday & an intoxicating movie with extraordinary twist and turns?  Unfortunately, this is what the world is going through right now. We are experiencing a pandemic that is redefining the world, Before-COVID-19, and After-COVID-19; more popularly being known as the BC & AC Era of the 20^th Century!

This pandemic is severely impacting communities, ecosystems, economy, markets, supply chain of all essential and non-essential commodities across the world.  While the corporates are focusing on protecting their employees, understanding the risk in their businesses, and taking major steps in managing the disruptions that have been caused due to COVID-19, the business continuity and liquidity crunch remain at the forefront of worries for the leadership.

With enhanced focus on Liquidity, Corporates are struggling to keep the business alive amidst the country-wide lockdown. Top it all, we have the plummeting markets with such high volatility that could give the leadership a panic attack.

There is a new normal at the outset, and many organizations have already started accommodating to this new normal and are utilizing this downtime to prepare themselves for the After-COVID-19 Era.

It is not just about working from home, the After-COVID-19 Era is going to transform how we do business, borders will dissolve as businesses become adaptive to digital transformation and seamlessly connected across the globe. Technology will lead the way and pave the path for success for those who adopt technology at a faster pace. When looking at the current scenario, when every organization has opted for work from home, technology has become an imperative need for business continuity.

The Learnings from this Crisis

The most critical aspect for businesses today is that this is not the time to panic. As we get accustomed to this new normal, things will fall in place and business will get back to usual. Though it will take time to recuperate from the adverse effects so far on the economy, but it will rebound with a stronger belief in the fundamentals driving the business value.

Moreover, this is the time to empathize and support the ecosystem. It is critical to stay connected with your clients, employees, partners, and vendors. This is the time to fortify trust and security amongst fellow human beings which will percolate automatically to the businesses and the global economy.

The biggest learning to imbibe from these challenging times, especially for the leadership, is to adapt to technology and drive the success of the business through digitization and automation. These two words, if understood and implemented suitably in the corporates today, will transform the way businesses are run in the “After COVID-19 Era”.

Are you still running the critical operations manually?

Especially focusing on the financial aspect of the corporates, the CFOs are struggling today with the cashflow crunch and getting clear visibility on the liquidity position of the organization for the months to come. Many CxO’s are still dependent on archaic solutions for critical functions.  In such times, the manual dependency of critical functions such as Cash & Liquidity, Treasury, Risk, and Trade Finance management further impacts the business continuity. How do we expect a CFO to take critical decisions with stale information and no data integrity? Therefore, the value of digitization and automation amplifies, playing a critical role in ensuring business continuity.

Your Business Continuity Plan has to be built on technology initiatives at the heart to sustain and succeed through the After-COVID-19 Era.

COVID-19 – An Opportunity in disguise?

With every crisis, comes an opportunity. With Covid-19, the opportunity has been presented to press the RESET button and re-align the resources towards adoption of technology to drive digitization and automation of each and every function of the corporate. Treasury, Risk & Trade Finance Management is a critical function, requires much more dedicated focus from the CxOs to adapt the digitalization of operations.

While on the other hand, corporates who decided to stay ahead of the curve and deployed a comprehensive Risk Management Solution without waiting for a life-altering pandemic, had better sleep at night even in these tumultuous times.

You may ask, what does an ideal Risk management solution offer? An ideal solution would be that covers the entire landscape of risks for the Corporate, Compliance, Financial as well as the Operational; and enables single-point of truth for critical decision making. CxO’s and treasury heads when evaluating for a comprehensive Risk Management solution should start looking for a holistic solution that enables digitization & automation of the Cash & Liquidity, Risk, Treasury & Trade Finance function of the corporate.

Turn this crisis into opportunity and drive the digital transformation of your organization. Prepare yourself for the After-COVID-19 Era, start brainstorming on the Business Continuity Plan that is driven by the power of technology.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article on Coronavirus (COVID19) are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of  IBS Intelligence. IBSFINtech is an end-to-end risk mitigation solution provider for BFSI and several other sectors)

By Rajashekhara V Maiya – VP, Global Head-Business Consulting at Finacle-Infosys

With Covid 19, there is no longer a need to push the case for a digital-only proposition, which has in a matter of weeks become the definition of next-normal banking. Thus far, traditional banks digitized to overcome challenges and keep up with competition; going forward, they will have to be digital by design.

Because of the speed with which digital-only banking is setting in, a study of the U.S. market doubts that all the bank branches that closed will open post lockdown. After all, why would customers risk a trip to the branch when they can bank safely from home? With fewer customers walking in, and social distancing norms limiting capacity, branch banking will cease to be efficient.

In the next-normal, two scenarios will emerge; one for each type of bank. Traditional institutions with a brick and mortar setup will look to build a digital-only proposition from scratch, likely as a separate subsidiary or legal entity. As the number of remote workers goes up, incumbent banks will start dipping into the gig economy for part-time and short-term employees (even in their branches), just like we predicted in our 2020 Banking Trends Report. The middle and back offices may turn fully remote, given that the concept of the office as a physical place is fast unraveling. All these developments will force traditional banks to turn digital-only, or at least digital-predominantly.

On the other hand, neo/challenger banks that were born digital will try to expand their limited offerings to a complete products and services menu, because they will now have to serve all, and not just digital-native, customers. Where challenger banks forced traditional institutions to digitize to remain competitive in the past, in the next-normal, digitized incumbents will drive their new rivals to become full-fledged providers to match their scale of offerings.

Banks evolving their digital-only propositions should pay attention to the following:

• Prepare their entire people, product, process and technology landscape for the next-normal. This means enabling people for remote working; digitizing products from end-to-end, or from origination to closure; transforming processes to run straight through with no manual intervention or hand-off; and employing technologies that can digitize the bank fast and scale it even faster.

The last is of critical importance. Recently, when the U.S. government issued benefit checks worth US$ 200-300 billion, 6 banks broke down because their systems couldn’t handle the transaction volume. For banks in advanced economies with a mass of legacy systems, the expected spurt in volume in non-branch channels is a source of concern. They need to act quickly to transform their entire landscape to avoid going down.

• Build perseverance and resilience. The industry must prepare for a twofold challenge in the next-normal. Banks short on liquidity will find it hard to pay up should customers decide to withdraw their deposits en masse. Other banks may have liquidity, but find that their assets are worthless because borrowers cannot repay their loans, and there are no buyers for their collateral. It will be a long, hard road out of this liquidity-solvency crisis, taking several years. Banks will need to plan, not just for the next couple of quarters, but for 10-20 years. They have to dig deep to be resilient in the short-term and enduring in the long. The next few years should be spent in strengthening the organization’s systems – through automation, AI and other digital technologies – and policies, in readiness for when the customers return.

• If there is a silver lining to the crisis, it is that it will force banking to be reimagined completely into a digital-only proposition; everything from customer interactions, employee transactions, risk management and cybersecurity to the way the target operating model, and front-middle-back office are run, will change substantially. If banks take all the decisions they need beforehand, the transformation will last them a long time, minimizing the need for frequent change.

• To cope with this crisis, the banking industry will need to consider its impact on other industries as well. Since the scale of Covid 19 is so much bigger than that of the 2008 Financial Crisis, measures, such as government bailout and quantitative easing to relieve banks, are out. In addition to attending to their own problems, banks must also consider the needs of clients, who are equally, if not more, impacted. While designing their digital-only capabilities, they need to consider how that might impact businesses that have also been forced into a similar situation (think of entirely automated assembly lines, retail outlets with zero employees, airlines without ticketing staff and so on). For example, can their digital-only proposition include a contactless commerce solution suitable to all industries and enterprises?

• Almost certainly banks will face new laws in the wake of the pandemic. This could be overwhelming for an industry that is already grappling with regulations around open banking, cybersecurity, consumer protection etc. However they can make it easier for themselves by planning for a foundation layer in their digital-only proposition to cater to existing and emerging compliance expectations.

The Covid crisis will put many weak banks out of business. This is therefore the time to build resilience and endurance by strengthening the P&L and Balance Sheet. In the next-normal, digital-only banking will not only concern customer-facing processes, but also apply to banking operations from end-to-end. Digital will be so entrenched that for the first time the viability of a bank could depend on how much revenue and profit it makes from its digital-only proposition.

By Simon Moss, CEO of Symphony AyasdiAI

During the Great Recession, enterprise technology businesses did relatively well, including those that served a banking and funds sector that took a direct hit.

Banks and funds that survived cut costs to balance their books as demand cratered, but CIOs felt they couldn’t scrimp on software subscriptions lest they fall behind in increasingly competitive markets where survival meant claiming more of a shrinking pie.

Some in the enterprise tech industry think that dynamic will happen again. Despite recent positive earnings from big tech companies, they’re almost certainly wrong. Now it’s the other way around.

The world is in the midst of what is shaping up to be potentially the worst economic crisis in a generation. It might not feel like it yet because almost everyone has been in a state of denial called lockdown. Sooner or later, though, we’ll open our eyes and see who’s not wearing a swimsuit now that the tide has gone out.

To wit, as Gavin Baker at Atreides Management has written, companies under duress are taking a second look at existing software contracts. Companies spend half their IT budgets on software. A responsible leader can’t keep it off the chopping block.

A false sense of security has lulled many tech and AI firms into thinking they can get away with marketing their technology in the abstract, leaving it to the customer to figure out the best use case. That approach might have worked in a world where customers had the time and money to indulge in exploration.

Customers are nervous. They’ve got more challenges at a time when revenue is a question mark. Our task is to listen and respond with real, easily understandable and, perhaps most importantly, immediate solutions that directly address their needs this week.

Customers today don’t want to know how or why a technology works. They want to know how soon they will see that it is making a measurable difference. For instance, let’s take a look at banks right now.

Banks Swimming In Uncharted Waters

The government’s $4 trillion of stimulus spending in the face of the pandemic is a bonanza for fraudsters. The politicians want to flood the zone with cash overnight. Bankers, however, are on the hook for sifting applicants to figure out who deserves the money and who is seeking to exploit the overwhelmed system for ill-gotten gain.

Thieves have plenty of stolen identities in their little black books. Shell companies abound. Under pressure to shovel out the loans quickly to forestall economic oblivion but wary of regulators eager to blame them for the pitfalls of the government’s haste, the bankers must figure out how to identify good customers from bad.

The moment seems perfect for AI. But humility is a better first response. Most machine learning today is fighting yesterday’s fraudsters. It might catch the amateurs. The professionals, meanwhile, have already been camping in their victims’ networks using sophisticated tools that represent a new generation of graft that’s likely more sweeping than those we’ve stopped in the past.

Commercial banks don’t want more layers of protection that consume their attention, either. They’re already flooded with calls and facing staffing shortages while dealing with swamped government agencies and poorly designed, malfunctioning websites.

The objective, non-biased, hypothesis-free analyses afforded by the right kind of artificial intelligence has a better shot at making banks’ challenges simpler. Auditable machine learning could, for example, provide regulators with not just what fraudsters were uncovered, but why and how.

But do bankers want to hear about topologies and the difference between supervised and unsupervised machine learning? Certainly not. They’re racing too fast for a lecture. They can’t waste time asking if they can really integrate new software into their workflows.

Bubble Bursting

As bankers face a crisis in oversight, generational changes are also afoot. Millennials in particular are poised to begin inheriting trillions in the coming decades. Many of them feel little or no affinity with traditional banks. They expect far more tech-oriented options. To satisfy them, banks are going to need to cut costs in their old systems in order to develop new platforms.

We estimate those cost cuts will comprise around 40 per cent of current spending on technology. Those changes come in addition to the coronavirus pandemic and its aftereffects.

The frothy market for software led to high valuations in recent years. Inexpensive debt helped, too. Look around now. Once-confident AI companies that are having a hard time convincing investors and customers of the value of their product in the new environment. Now customers are facing monumental risks while seeking to lower overhead. That’s a tough climate for the less-than-fit.

AI companies who can quickly demonstrate to jittery chief risk officers and chief financial officers that they can filter out the cheaters, chiselers and scam artists quickly and decisively will not only survive but prosper. That’s the prize we’re chasing. It won’t just come to us.

Simon Moss is CEO of Symphony AyasdiAI, an artificial intelligence software company serving financial services and other industries.

Insurance providers have found themselves at the forefront of the Covid-19 pandemic, but whilst the level of disruption we’ve seen at the hands of the Coronavirus is unprecedented, a quick look at the history of the sector raises the question as to whether it could have been better prepared.

by Vijayamohan Keshav, Senior Principal Business Consultant, Expleo 

The SARS pandemic of the early 2000s should have been a wakeup call to all businesses about the importance of agility. After this event, insurance companies should have taken steps to future-proof themselves, as they did their claims ,by automating vital processes, updating their digital channels, and building a digitally savvy workforce.

Instead, concerns around time, costs and potentially just a general underestimation of upcoming challenges, meant many took a slow and steady approach to digitisation. So, when the Coronavirus hit, up to 70% of providers were still relying primarily on legacy applications – applications that just weren’t prepared to deal with the unprecedented wave of activity associated with a pandemic.

Post this pandemic, insurance providers must put the lessons they learn into action and put automation at the heart of their operations. As Lloyd’s of London announces an expected pay out of between £2.5 and £3.5 bn, their biggest pay out since 9/11, we examine how technology will help bring the industry back on its feet.

Focus on what counts

Whilst costs will inevitably need to be cut over the next few years to make room for more capital, Covid-19 has focused the industry’s attention on what matters when it comes to digital innovation. Far from hindering technological progress, we can expect more investment, with insurers focusing their resources on priority areas.

Blockchain, for instance, is likely to take a backseat in the list of immediate priorities, but automating production processes – whether that be underwriting, claims or complaints – is a no-brainer. There have been far too many delays and mistakes made in recent weeks for this not to become a sector standard. We can expect investments in AI and machine learning to be primarily in the areas of intelligent process automation.

Implementing more robust security measures, meanwhile, is paramount. This has been low on the priority list for investment so far, but with hackers on high alert and remote working becoming the norm rather than the exception, every provider needs to make sure its infrastructure is infallible. For an industry centred around processing money and data – particularly personal data – there can be disastrous repercussions if there is a failure to implement cutting-edge security at the enterprise level.

Earn back trust through innovation

Insurance providers are built upon security, trust and their ability to deliver upon that trust at critical times of need. The performance and customer usability elements of insurance businesses will come under more pressure than ever.

These usability elements include enhancing the customer experience when using digital channels, making claims processes clearer, or providing additional customer service channels through more contemporary routes, like social media – all of which can be enabled by technology.

The critical need for quality covers both back and front-end processes and the clearest path to delivering this is through a quality assurance process that primarily uses automation tools to save insurers critical time and money whilst dramatically minimising risk.

Transformation, consolidation, and regulation

As part of the industry-wide digital transformation process and potentially as a result of the Covid-19 crisis, we can expect a higher rate of mergers and acquisitions over the coming years. Insurers of all shapes and sizes will look to digitally native firms, or InsurTechs to help them grow, scale up or simply survive. We’ll also see a similar chain of events occur within the InsurTech community too, with bigger players acquiring smaller players and key technologies and approaches coming to the fore.

Whether you consider the need for innovation in reaction to Covid-19, or in terms of market competition and disruption, there are few upsides to be found for insurers sticking to legacy systems and ways of serving customers.

More change to come

With entire economies crippled by the virus, for the first time in many years, the insurance industry has had to be proactive in adapting to change. And while it may have been borne out of necessity, we should see this change in pace as an opportunity for the sector to make some much-needed improvements as long as it never takes its eye off security, performance and the quality of delivery.

The road ahead will not be easy – especially with the adjustment to remote working, and accompanying challenges around security and productivity. But if insurance providers can make sure to address and update these crucial aspects of their businesses, and embrace an automation-first mindset, they have a good chance of emerging stronger.