Insurance Banana Skins 2023

Overview

Insurance Banana Skins 2023 surveyed the risks facing the insurance industry in the second half of 2023, and identified risks that appear most urgent to insurance practitioners and close observers of the insurance scene around the world.

The anxiety level in Singapore’s insurance industry saw a significant hike from 2021 to 2023, rising above the global average. The local industry has felt less prepared to handle risks this year as compared to before.

_{The Banana Skins Indices, Singapore, 2021 - 2023 (scale of 1 to 5)}

Banana Skins index		Preparedness index
2021	2023	2021	2023
Singapore – 3.37	Singapore – 3.59 (▲by 0.22 points)	Singapore – 3.10	Singapore – 3.20 (▲by 0.10 points)
Global – 3.19	Global – 3.21 (▲by 0.02 points)	Global – 3.22	Global ౼ 3.20 (▼by 0.02 points)

_{Source: Insurance Banana Skins 2023}

The result of Singapore’s survey shares similarities with the results of the Global and Asia Pacific surveys, in particular, cyber risk is amongst the top 3 in all three markets. At the same time, locally, the human talent, technology and climate change remained of high concern.

Human talent

Human talent has been identified as the top risk for the insurance industry in the 2023 survey for Singapore.
We saw a significant rise from 7th to 1st as compared to the 2021 survey.
As insurers find it increasingly harder to attract and retain talent, it has now become an imperative for businesses to acquire the know-how to manage the potential adverse effects of workforce risk. Consequently, there is an increasing need for CROs and CHROs to develop a common language to navigate this growing challenge.

Technology

Second ranked in the Singapore top risk list.
Moved down one spot from 1st to 2nd compared to the 2021 survey.
Over the past few years, digital efforts have been proliferating greatly as company’s ambitions drive technological innovation. Keeping up with consumer expectations has forced many companies to rethink their digital strategies that invariably give rise to risks of greater sophistication.

Cyber crime

Third most recognised Singapore insurance sector risk.
Cyber crime moved down from 2nd to 3rd compared to the 2021 survey.
The year marked by a confluence of attack types and motives in the growing pool of sabotage, espionage, and hacktivism, increasingly motivated by geopolitics.

“With risks becoming increasingly sophisticated alongside ambitions to grow, digitalise and automate; it is becoming imperative for businesses to develop a resilient operational backbone even when risk functions become adept in preparing for the unknown.”

Woo Shea LeenInsurance Leader, PwC Singapore