A number of factors are driving disruption in the insurance industry, posing a major challenge for the regulators – a challenge the UK regulators are rising to with gusto, says Helen Chapman, an insurance partner at law firm Hogan Lovells.…

The Great Fire of London was finally extinguished 350 years ago today. New insurance structures emerged in the aftermath of the Great Fire – which bear striking resemblance to some of the contenders disrupting the insurance market right now. A number of InsurTech startups are seeking to do for insurance what peer-to-peer (P2P) arrangements did for retail banking – fundamentally change the business model of an industry by removing slow and costly middlemen. These startups have…

The Insurance Act 2015 (the “Act“) comes into force tomorrow.  It represents a fundamental departure from existing insurance law.   The changes impact on a number of key areas which are summarised in the following document: click here. The Act will impact on insurers, insureds, brokers and reinsurers. Whatever your involvement in the insurance market, it will be necessary to be aware of its terms. The terms of the Act will apply automatically but it…

What is genuinely innovative about today’s insurance sector? Perhaps little – but that is beginning to change. For the past few years we have seen innovative ways of selling products – such as search engine aggregators – at the distribution end of the retail market. Yet with the majority of costs borne by insurers falling at the underwriting end, rather than the distribution end, there is surely space for significant change. There is a buzz…

The Department for Transport’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) has begun a consultation on its proposed changes to the law surrounding liability for accidents and insurance cover to accommodate automated car technologies. Increased use of automated car technologies will shift the nature of insurance claims. The increased safety of driverless cars should greatly reduce the number of individual accidents requiring fault between human drivers to be determined. On the other hand, if a…

In this bulletin, we summarise some of the issues the insurance industry now faces following the referendum result. Hogan Lovells has had in place a dedicated constitutional change taskforce led by senior thought leaders from across our business since 2014 to analyse and alert businesses to the issues on the horizon.  We also have a well-established and highly experienced insurance practice across Europe and the rest of the world. Click here to continue reading our…

The UK Government is seeking to place itself at the forefront of technology for autonomous vehicles.  A feature of the Queen’s Speech on 18 May 2016 was the announcement of the Modern Transport Bill, which will deal with how motor vehicle insurance and liability is handled.  A Government spokesperson has said: “Our current insurance and liability systems are built around driver negligence but where a self-driving vehicle is involved in a collision it would be…