“How the digital revolution is changing the risks and the insurance business”: this was the title of the opening panel of the second day of works of the 20th Annual Assicurazioni organised on 12 and 13 November in the Milan headquarters of Il Sole24Ore, in which the Chief Executive Officer of Cattolica Assicurazioni, Alberto Minali participated. During a discussion which also brought to the rapporteur table Andreas Moser, CEO of Munich Re Italia, and Dominque Uzel, Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Groupama Assicurazioni, Minali defined the strategies adopted by the Group to remain competitive by meeting with greater speed and efficiency the challenges of the industry posed by the new digital technologies.

“One of the first initiatives launched upon my arrival at Cattolica was in fact the creation of a data analytical team: and team working on the transformation of the company into a data driven company, in other words a company capable of exploiting a single store of information which could be used by the various departments - Alberto Minali highlighted during his speech - I placed this team at the head of the business so that it would be able, by looking at both the static data and the dynamic data, to create personalised products adapted to various types of customer. It was a decision made with the awareness that technology impacts our sector to the point that the business models are changing: there are already the first signs with the models of instant insurance or micro-insurance already on the market”.

Another aspect discussed by the Manager during the meeting was that of digital innovation applied to the world of business - in particular in the food and agriculture sector - to prevent and limit the risks connected to natural disasters. “In this sense, we are moving towards digital processes to make the settlement procedure of the claim in agriculture faster and more efficient, for example through the use of drones and geolocalised mapping - Minali explained. - As regards the subject of catastrophic risks, it must also be emphasized that Italy is an under-insured country. A greater culture of risk could help the entrepreneurs to understand that insurance plays an obvious social role. Just think of the earthquakes that affected Emilia and Abruzzo: in the first case, the fact that many companies were insured made it possible for the Region to return the labour chain into operation quickly”.