II International Conference on Risk Assessment and Loss Adjustment RISKS&CLAIMS-2019 Held in Moscow
The International Conference, RISKS&CLAIMS-2019, to address crucial tasks and topical issues related to risk assessment and loss adjustment was held in Metropol Hotel in Moscow on September 19, which brought together over a hundred of the world’s leading professionals including representatives from insurance and reinsurance companies, insurance brokers, lawyers, risk managers, risk surveyors and loss adjusters.
The conference is a second event held by the National Association of Insurance Adjusters in Russia, with support from the All-Russian Union of Insurers, featuring the leading experts of the Russian and global insurance industry. “One of the main goals of our conference is to establish an interactive relationship between the Insured and experts involved in this important industry”, Andrey Bogachov who is President of the National Association of Insurance Adjusters said in his address to the conference participants. “We need to pinpoint areas in our collaboration which want improvement in order to meet our common desires and needs”.
The plenary session of the Conference to discuss priority development areas for risk assessment and loss adjustment was opened by Nikolay Galushin, a member of the Supervisory Board of RNRC, who mentioned the dynamic changes in the insurance market as affected by global processes, “New forms of insurance emerge, new insurance products appear to replace classic products. The insurance industry faces a new reality creating new challenges and we need to talk about them”.
A presentation by Antonina Belova, director of the Corporate Claims Management Department of IC Allianz, focused on findings from investigations into risks and risk factors, analyzed the top 10 list of risks of 2019, and provided a comparative analysis of the Russian and global ratings. The issues of catastrophe risks, the role of the state and business, methods for the measurement of losses linked to the risks of man-caused and natural disasters were touched upon in the presentations by the international experts Ronald Brighouse (SCOR Global P&C, UK) and Mark Vos (FUEDI, Netherlands). Head of the Insurance Department of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Alexander Tsyganov, Ph.D., talked about the need to establish qualification criteria for finance specialists and develop educational programs to meet the current requirements of the insurance industry. A presentation by principal specialist of the Property and Liability Insurance Department of Ingosstrakh, Ilya Kocherov, dealt with the efforts to improve claim management processes through digitalization and outsourcing mechanisms for remote adjustment. The speaker believes these technologies used by dedicated experts will help significantly improve the efficiency and quality of adjustment.
The second session of the Conference “RISKS&CLAIMS-2019” was in the form of a panel discussion dedicated to “Risks and Events. Experience and Lessons. Expert Opinions” moderated by general director of RIFAMS Alexey Laikov.
Senior Vice President of Marsh Insurance Brokers, Alexander Samarin, Ph.D., spoke about the training of skilled risk engineers and acquisition of reliable information for risk assessment and improvement of risk control procedures. Vladimir Grachev, a risk engineer from LABB who has 25 years’ experience in the insurance business, presented findings from his industrial loss case studies and compared a number of the most widely used risk measurement methods. A loss incurred by a metals company was analyzed by Sergey Biryukov, head of the Corporate Insurance of Corporate Solutions Center (NLMK, PGK, UCLH). Senior risk engineer from Mensor, Yevgeny Krylov, provided his expert opinion on risks in the mining industry, including the stages of extraction and processing of minerals and offered practical considerations for an integrated approach to risk assessment.
The third session of the Conference was dedicated to the advanced loss adjustment technologies. Phil Durrant, managing director Europe, Middle East and Africa, and adjuster Andrew Evans (Integra Technical Services, UK) considered CAR/EAR insurance aspects which are given priority today, namely, delay in startup (DSU) and defects exclusion clauses in CAR/EAR policies. Director Vlad Prykmeta and partner Ben Hobby of BTVK Advisory (UK) spoke about key issues of cyber losses and presented a review of insurance methods and case studies as well as similarities and differences between property insurance and cyber risks insurance. A study “Trends and Drivers in Power Claims” was presented by expert Rob McNail from MatthewsDaniel (UK). Business development director of BELFOR, Martin Schachtschneider (Germany) introduced recent solutions for equipment and property cleaning and saving. The session was moderated by Sergey Kozhevnikov, director of the insurance department of RUSAL.
Leonid Zubarev, senior partner of legal firm CMS, Russia, was the moderator and speaker in the final session, “Legal Aspects of Claims Management”. His presentation was dedicated to insurance policy interpretations in specific areas of insurance, primarily, cases involving foreign companies and translation of policies into foreign languages. The advantages of settling disputes in arbitration court were analyzed in the presentation by Andrey Gorlenko, manager of the Russian Arbitration Center of the Russian Institute of Modern Arbitration. The presentation by Nikita Kosmachevsky from the legal firm Remedy, “Arbitration Court and Arbitration Proceedings. Sea Disputes. Today and Tomorrow”, and Andrew Bicknell, partner of Сlyde&Co LLP (UK), “Legal Aspects of Claim Management and Arbitration”, were a logical continuation of the discussion of arbitration practices and positive and negative aspects of their application in insurance claim disputes.
Summarizing the conference, the participants extended their thanks to the conference moderators and noted the urgent character of the topics discussed. Taking into account the increasingly important role of insurance professionals amid the current global threats and risks such as man-caused and natural disasters, international terrorism and cyber crimes, the moderators supported the initiative of holding such conferences on a yearly basis. The next conference is planned for September 24, 2020.
Moderators appreciate the support of the sponsors and partners of the International Conference «RISKS&CLAIMS-2019. Risk Assessment and Loss Adjustment”. The official sponsor is IPJSC Ingosstrakh. The official partners are VSK Insurance House, CMS international legal firm, Russian Arbitration Center. The main media partner is Modern Insurance Technologies. The strategic media partner is MIG Insurance Today. The media partners are Insurance News Agency, Association of Professional Insurance Brokers, Russian Risk Management Society, Institute for Strategic Risk Analysis in Decision Making, Allinsurance.kz.