InsurTech4Good.com Weekly Newsletter – #33, 2025

This week’s edition offers a sweeping global view, covering everything from the evolution of SupTech to the practicalities of embedded insurance, as well as NatCat data infrastructure and AI adoption in Asia and beyond.

It is a packed issue that connects the dots between technology, supervision, and the changing face of insurance.

Hope it is useful!

Andres

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The State of SupTech 2025

The State of SupTech Report 2025 is out, offering a four year view of how financial and insurance authorities are digitalising supervision. 

It draws on data from 312 authorities across 172 countries, including 148 authorities from 105 countries surveyed in 2025 alone. 

The report covers SupTech adoption, data governance, AI and cloud usage, governance and operating models, and implementation constraints.

Happy weekend reading!

Oh...and if you are working on SupTech adoption and want a practical way forward, contact me. 

I help supervisory authorities assess where they are today, define the target state, and build a delivery focused roadmap to get there, including technical specifications and cost estimates. 

This work is delivery oriented, done in close cooperation with an excellent IT architect, and rooted in an e-Estonia mindset. I'm also happy to work through development banks.

Read more here. 

EIOPA Eurobarometer 2025 work on consumer trends in insurance and pension services

24% of consumers now buy insurance exclusively online, while 37% still prefer in-person channels.

30% of respondents say they would trust AI recommendations.

These are some of the findings from the recent EIOPA Eurobarometer 2025 work on consumer trends in insurance and pension services.

More detailed data is available for all EU Member States.

Read more here. 

Putting customer interests first in embedded insurance

10 statutory obligations & 7 recommendations on putting customer interests first in embedded insurance.

• Statutory obligation 1: Providers and platforms must ensure that the chosen insurance proposition and the platform meet the conditions of the licence requirement, exemption or exception.
• Statutory obligation 2: Providers must have adequate procedures and measures in place to ensure that customer interests are considered in a balanced manner in the development of the product and that the insurance is demonstrably the result of this balancing of interests.
• Statutory obligation 3: Providers must carry out scenario analyses to continuously check whether the product and its distribution are appropriate for the target group.
• Recommendation 1: Personalise products to promote customer interest.
• Statutory obligation 4: Providers and platforms must ensure that the ban on cross-selling is not violated.
• Statutory obligation 5: Additional distance selling standards apply to embedded insurance products purchased online.
• Recommendation 2: Consider the guiding effect of the choice environment and design it carefully. Measure whether the chosen design also has the desired effect on customer behaviour.
• Statutory obligation 6: Platforms and providers must ensure that the information they supply to customers is correct, clear and not misleading.
• Statutory obligation 7: Providers and platforms must comply with both the legal standards for information provision on financial products (insurance) and the standards for information provision on non-financial products (the good or service).
• Statutory obligation 8: In the case of non-life insurance, provide the correct information in a timely manner, such as a correct IPID.
• Statutory obligation 9: The information supplied to consumers must comply with the standards of disclosure in all the languages in which it is made available.
• Recommendation 3: Include relevant information on the insurance in the choice environment so that it is easier for customers to determine the terms and conditions of the product.
• Recommendation 4. Balance the convenience of taking out insurance with ensuring that customers are still adequately informed about the product's features.
• Recommendation 5: Inform customers how the embedded insurance product fits in with traditional insurance policies they may already have.
• Statutory obligation 10: Providers or platforms must ensure that they have an adequate complaints procedure and are affiliated with a dispute resolution body.
• Recommendation 6: Determine whether the service in the management phase is in line with the way the product is distributed and meets customers’ expectations.
• Recommendation 7: Inform customers clearly and in a timely manner about the expiry date of the insurance.

Nice, clear and to-the-point work by the AFM team. Congrats. Compulsory reading for regulators & innovators alike.

Read more here. 

Nat-Cat prevention and innovation

Climate change is making natural catastrophe risk very local. Down to your street, your building, your mortgage.

EIOPA’s PROTECT work shows that Europe already has many NatCat tools, but they are fragmented, use different methodologies and often stop at “here is your risk level” instead of driving real prevention and insurance literacy.

To move from nice maps to real action, we need two enablers working together in my opinion.

1. Open risk data

A lot of high-quality hazard and exposure data is already available in Europe, but it is scattered across national platforms, sectoral portals and individual projects (including insurers past claims data).

As I have argued before, we may need a pan-EU open data mapping that brings this together in one place, similar in spirit to an ESAP-type solution for risk and resilience data.

A shared, open infrastructure like that would let tools be built once and reused across the EU, instead of staying in isolated silos.

2. Open finance/insurance (FiDA)

Hazard data alone does not tell people their personal protection gap. For that, tools need access to information on existing insurance cover, exclusions, deductibles and loan exposure.

The FiDA open finance framework can provide this via standardised, consent-based APIs across financial institutions, including insurers.

Combine the two and you get something powerful:

• Open risk data tells you how exposed your location is.
• Open finance tells you how exposed you are.

Read more here. 

AI in finance across 15 Asian jurisdictions

In Asia, the use of artificial intelligence in finance has grown rapidly, creating opportunities to improve efficiency, innovation, inclusion, and customer outcomes.

At the same time, AI can amplify existing vulnerabilities and introduce new risks.

This new paper reviews policy frameworks for AI in finance across 15 Asian jurisdictions, based on the OECD Survey on Asian Policy Approaches to AI in Finance, and sets out key policy considerations.

Read more here. 

11 key insurance-related findings from the survey on South Africa’s financial sector

11 key insurance-related findings from the recent Financial Sector Conduct Authority and Prudential Authority report on artificial intelligence in South Africa’s financial sector.

1. Most insurers intended to invest less than R1 million on AI in 2024.

2. The leading application of AI/ML is in general insurance. The leading application of genAI is in risk and compliance.

3. Data and analytical insights is the largest benefit of AI/ML. Productivity is the largest benefit of genAI usage.

4. Insurance underwriting and claims management are the current/planned to use ML applications. Claims management and productivity are the current/planned to use genAI applications.

5. The biggest risk to the usage of AI is cybersecurity. It is followed by data security and data privacy and protection.

6. The leading regulatory constraint is data protection and privacy law. Other constraints include lack of access to sufficient data and insufficient talent/access to skills.

7. Data governance and ethical guidelines and/or principles are the leading established governance frameworks.

8. ML specific data management & governance is mainly focused on change management.

9. Accountability for AI usage mainly sits with the Board or the relevant governing body.

10. Data privacy is the leading ethical consideration.

11. Feature importance is the leading explainability method employed.

Read more here. 

Insurance and financial inclusion 

1 billion adults are still outside the formal financial system.

This is despite huge progress in digital payments, savings programmes, and access to credit and insurance.

In many emerging economies, large insurance protection gaps continue to leave households and SMEs highly vulnerable to financial shocks.

This new report explores how insurance can strengthen resilience and financial stability.

It sets out three priorities to make insurance a real pillar of financial inclusion:

• Insurers: design simple, accessible products that offer genuinely affordable protection.
• Governments: embed insurance in national development and financial inclusion strategies.
• Supervisors and regulators: implement risk-based, innovation-friendly frameworks that balance market growth with robust consumer protection.

And once again, achieving this at scale is impossible without technology and innovation. From better data and digital distribution to new partnership models.

Open Finance and open insurance in Malaysia

Open insurance is coming to Malaysia!

Bank Negara Malaysia has released an Exposure Draft on a proposed open finance framework.

It sets out regulatory requirements for consent-based sharing of customer data across the financial sector, including the insurance industry, to ensure data is shared in a secure, open, accessible, interoperable and timely way.

BNM is now inviting written feedback on the proposals.

Read more here. 

AI usage in Estonian financial sector

A survey by Estonian Financial Supervisor has found that most of the financial institutions (including insurers and insurance intermediaries) in Estonia are already using AI and that its importance in providing support for work processes, client service and risk management is increasing rapidly.

Finantsinspektsioon ran a questionnaire in the first half of 2025 asking financial companies to estimate their current use of AI and its role in the Estonian financial sector.

There were 65 companies under financial supervision that responded to the survey, which is enough to give a good picture of the technological level and readiness of the whole sector.

Most of the respondents had already looked at AI, and a lot of solutions are at least in the testing phase. A notable proportion of the companies are actively using AI, while those that are keeping clear of it are the exception.

The most common uses are language processing, machine learning models and automation of processes, and they are mainly encountered in data analysis and client service.

Read more here.

Innovation facilitation in UK 

From the FCA’s just published Growth Approach letter to the Prime Minister, a few innovation facilitation and support measures stand out for me:

1. Scale-Up Unit and tailored supervision.

Dedicated FCA–PRA Scale-Up Unit and more specialist supervisors focused on fast-growing and innovative firms.

2. Provisional licence pathway.

A proposed regime that would allow early-stage firms to begin limited regulated activity while full authorisation is progressing, as the legislative framework develops.

3. AI Lab and a “supercharged” sandbox.

Stronger support for testing AI-driven solutions in safe environments, with close regulatory engagement and targeted cohorts, including for digital assets and tokenisation.

4. Innovation concierge for international firms.

A clearer front door to help overseas innovators navigate the UK regulatory landscape and authorisation process.

5. Smart Data Accelerator and open finance experimentation.

A platform for smart data and open finance pilots, including SME-focused use cases and future digital products.

6. Smarter rulebook and digital reporting (MyFCA).

A machine-readable Handbook and streamlined reporting that reduce compliance burdens, especially for smaller and scaling firms.

7. Pre-application support and “minded-to-approve” feedback.

Earlier and clearer signals on authorisation outcomes for innovative models, helping firms invest and plan with more certainty.

Read more here.