Objective protection: the new perspectives of insurance. The title of the meeting organized by Intesa Sanpaolo in the headquarters of the Turin skyscraper follows what was announced in industrial plan presented last winter: no longer just wealth management (ie managed savings and Life) but wealth management and protection, no longer just asset management but asset risk management. In short, the watchword is Non-Life protection (not Motor) and the choice of Turin to talk about it, in the presence of the top management of Intesa Sanpaolo and the insurance world, is not accidental because the Piedmontese capital will be the reference market for the new insurance business of the group. Indeed, bancassurance, because the investment in the Non-Life business will materialize the bancassurance project which, as explained by the president of Ivass Salvatore Rossi, "is neither a bank nor an insurance company, it is a third party".
“Italy is a highly underinsured country”, said the president of ANIA Maria Bianca Farina. The thesis is supported by Ipsos data, presented by Nando Pagnoncelli: only 23% of Italians have life insurance, only 21% health insurance and only 6% work insurance. Yet 56% of Italians (61% in the age range between 55 and 74) do not feel protected in the event of job loss and 40% do not feel guaranteed in the possibility of being treated, and the need to be able to access medical care ranks first among the priorities, especially of the younger ones, in perspective. “Not to mention the fact – said Farina – that 78% of Italian homes are exposed to medium-high risk with respect to natural disasters (floods, earthquakes, etc.) and that only 2% of homes are insured”.
According to Ipsos data, the vast majority of Italian savers continue to prefer liquidity: three out of four Italians keep more than half of their assets in liquidity. “The challenge – explains Nicola Maria Fioravanti, head of the Insurance division of Intesa Sanpaolo – is to work on customer awareness, adding a further element to our offer: that of protection against risks and unexpected events, for which Italians still rely too much on liquidity, on money set aside. It is the objective of our industrial plan, with regard to our 12 million customers: our bancassurance model is unique because it is within the same group”. Awareness therefore, and not obligation, as is the case for car damage. This is what Farina di Ania also claims: “The obligation must be the last resort. People already perceive the need to protect themselves, but they don't. Insuring families but also businesses against damage would also be important for the country's economic growth, it would trigger a virtuous circle making it more solid".
With technology, that represents both opportunity and risk. “IT risk, cyber risk, is very high”, comments Rossi, even if according to Farina “technology also supports the offer, thanks to sensors, domotics, artificial intelligence, the Internet of things and especially to Big Data, all tools that benefit the consumer and the customization of coverage and product prices offered". Technology that also allows for all-round consultancy, complete with prevention and monitoring, making the new products broader and more sophisticated. “Just think – explains Farina – of the old health insurance. Today we talk about health protection of health, and the insurer becomes a real well-being consultant”.
Intesa Sanpaolo intends to face this challenge by making Turin the bank-insurance hub. Today there are 800 people working on this (of which 100 in the Piedmontese capital), between now and 2021 they will become 1.300, with 500 new hires, half of which in Turin. This was announced by the president himself Gian Maria Gros Pietro, at the opening of the works which was also attended by the mayor Chiara Appendino and the president of the Region Sergio Chiamparino: "Today we are launching the initiative, already announced in our 2018-2021 Business Plan , with which we intend to become one of the major Italian operators in insurance for the protection of individuals, families and the assets they own. This project is a qualifying part of a plan that will profoundly change the mission with which we address our customers“, said Gros Pietro, recalling how the group that entered the life business has now become the first operator in Italy.
"Today - he continued - we believe that the service offered should be extended to other types of risks that can compromise the serenity of individuals and families, i.e. all events which, together with accidents, can affect health, the ability to produce income, assets, the availability of goods. Offering predictability and security is part of our mission. The Italians have entrusted us with more than 1000 billion of their savings to administer and use: we will also do so with an impact action that will expand the area of financeable initiatives and at the same time we will offer protection tools for individuals, families and productive activities".
Finally, the managing director Carlo Messina also spoke at the conference, specifying that the investment to make Turin the capital of insurance is "several tens of millions of euro". “We have only 5,8% of our customers who buy insurance products, against the 20-25% who buy mutual funds and other bank products. I believe that reaching 18-20% with bancassurance products is not complex. Already reaching the level of market share that we have on other products, we would become the first non-motor damage insurance company in Italy”, concluded Messina.
