The New Shape of Risk — Insights From the Third EY/IIF Insurance Risk Survey

Now that we're in the-- our third year of conducting the survey, are there any findings that jumped out to you?

You know, [sighs] it's always interesting to look at the data, and I always enjoy, as we get richer and richer and longer, things to look at things year over year.

And while, you know, there's things like the top risks that have stayed the same, I think what we've consistently seen is the ascension of the profession and the role in the CRO and insurance.

Uh, the talent continues to raise.

The expectations continue to rise of what the organizations look for and want from a CRO and their risk team.

How do we raise the bar of risk management within our firm? How do we transition from thinking about just downside risk and controls, but more how do we take better insights? That continues to look u-upwards.

The other thing I will say and, you know, a, a testament to the CROs, and that is there was a lot of things we saw in the survey that was done in largely the fourth quarter, early first, that was a bit of foreshadowing what you're seeing.

So it's certainly the rise of geopolitical risk.

You saw the things of AI, and I'd argue it's even accelerated since then, but really focus on governance.

And then you see some of the aspects, we talk about it as NAVI and some of the nonlinear accelerated volatile inter-interconnectedness.

And the number one skill set CROs are looking for is that those individuals that are able to really handle and think about different risks and, and really be that risk athlete.

So, um, a lot of interesting things that came out.

I do, and I joke a little bit about this, but, you know, the market moves so quickly, and if we can all-- if we could speed up the data collection to the output, I think that'd be helpful.

But it's great to look back and say, "Well, here are the different things that are playing out," whether it be where we're at in geopolitical, where we're at from an AI piece, and all the things that continue to come out from new updates and, and the evolving nature of it.

So those are the big things.

I also think that there's a lot of alignment with banking, and while the, the view in some pockets of the globe is that there's more advancements in risk and regulatory practices from, from the banking sector, there's a lot of things that are consistent, and we'll unpack a little bit of those, but you start to see similar themes that, uh, risk officers, organizations are, are balancing.

Yes, absolutely.

And, you know, we'll, we'll get into kind of how the insurance survey compares to the banking survey in a bit.

Uh, but I wanna double-check on the NAVI model that you mentioned, the nonlinear accelerated volatile and interconnected risk landscape that the CROs are operating in.

I'm wondering, how are the CROs changing the way that they're working in order to keep pace with that evolving environment?