Insurance companies in Asia set to leverage big data in push for smarter, cheaper products

Insurance companies in Asia including the biggest players in Hong Kong have been adapting new technology to cut costs and better manage risks related to car accidents as well as extreme weather and other natural catastrophes, according to the head of Nasdaq-listed data centre company Equinix.

“Asia has a big population and cultural attitudes are to place great importance on family. These factors are feeding an increased demand for insurance in the region. Asia is set to become the fastest growing insurance market worldwide,” said James Maudslay, global head of insurance of Equinix.

To capture these growing business opportunities, he said many insurance companies are looking towards big data in developing new products and risk management models, which would allow insurance companies to operate at a lower cost.

“Big data helps traditional insurance companies to develop new models and move into the digital age,” Maudslay said in an interview in Hong Kong. 

Equinix, a California-based company, provides a platform to connect financial firms with their business partners and customers. In the insurance sector, Equinix has a platform that simplifies the sharing of data between stakeholders, enabling interconnection in the global insurance market which can help improve the performance of risk modelling.

Maudslay said when insurance companies want to use big data to develop products or risk management modules, they draw heavily upon the company’s data exchange ecosystem.