This piece is by Sara Perez, Executive Vice President, EIS
Closing the Protection Gap Through Modernisation
Insurance plays a vital role in financial inclusion and resilience, yet many people still remain without adequate protection. As highlighted in the Financial Inclusion Committee’s new strategy report, renters, lower-income households, and self-employed individuals are disproportionately underserved. Affordability is part of the challenge — but so too is accessibility. The question for the industry is clear: how do we make protection easier to understand, easier to obtain, and easier to maintain in a world where needs change rapidly?
Insurers are making real progress in improving customer experience and designing products that better fit people’s lives. But many are still held back by the systems and operating models that sit underneath. Legacy systems built around products and policies rather than people make it difficult to personalise products for specific groups or respond dynamically to life events. These systems were never designed for a world where data flows in real time, customer circumstances shift constantly, and expectations of fairness and transparency are higher than ever.
One critical way that leading insurers are improving customer engagement and inclusivity is by shifting from product-centric to customer-centric platforms. This means unifying data around the individual, not the policy, so insurers can see and serve individuals. It means faster experimentation, modular product design, and the ability to partner beyond traditional boundaries to reach people where they are – whether that’s through employers, social housing, or digital ecosystems. With these foundations, insurers can tailor coverage, improve affordability, and engage customers before risk becomes crisis.
Financial inclusion and commercial sustainability are closely linked. A more agile, data-driven insurance sector can both broaden access and strengthen its own foundations for growth. By reducing friction and supporting more customer-driven experiences will enable insurers to design products that reflect real lives, and in so doing, help inclusion and affordability evolve in practical, transparent, and scalable ways.
The FIC’s strategy sets a positive direction for the market, and technology has a key role to play in helping it succeed. The opportunity now is for insurers, policymakers, and technology providers to work together to build the operational freedom and agility needed to deliver inclusive, customer-focused protection for all.
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