Insurtech and Interoperability of Fintech Firms

Abstract

This research aims at understanding if the current regulation would allow to an alternative market for risks and their coverages, due to the possibility that insurtech firms can offer the same insurance products and services, under different regulatory and prudential regimes then those provided for traditional insurance undertakings.

We focused on the perspective of new licensing approaches to the insurtech and, therefore, on the possibility that European authorities will supervise any business model used in the insurance industry, including the one based on an intensive use of financial innovation and technological improvement.

As a result of such analysis, we highlight that insurtech firms could have a competitive advantage based on their tools for client’s management, but these new intermediaries should be regulated in order to allow a fair competition between traditional businesses and fintech ones (excluding any benefit due to an asymmetry in the EU regulatory framework).

Keywords: Insurtech, Fintech, Insurance, EU, Eiopa