Bigger, faster, taller: new technologies need different risk management

Skyscrapers that will soon be 1 km high, tunnels more than 50 km long, transportation of inflammable lithium batteries in aircraft: new technologies and increasingly complex interconnections are continuously changing risks and creating new ones.

Munich. Such new technologies, with the new risks they entail, mean changes for society and companies. Risk management must constantly adapt to the increasing requirements. At the invitation of the Geneva Association, the CRO Forum and Munich Re, Chief Risk Officers and risk managers from leading international insurers discussed these changes and the action that needs to be taken with representatives from supervisory authorities and science. The position paper "Pushing the limits – managing risk in a faster, taller, bigger world” produced by the CRO Forum's Emerging Risk Initiative summarised the main trends, proposed solutions and the role of the insurance industry. (Download: Pushing the limits – Managing risk in a faster taller, bigger world)

“Modern risk management can build on past experience, but it has to take account of new interconnections and causal chains that didn't exist in the past”, said Bernhard Kaufmann, Chief Risk Officer at Munich Re. “Insurers have the expertise to analyse risks and quantify loss scenarios, which additionally enables them to reduce risks. Insurance solutions also support the development of new technologies.”

On the occasion of the conference, the CRO Forum also published an analysis of how human rights aspects are taken into account in insurers' risk management. Details of the analysis and the study itself are available via Munich Re's Corporate Responsibility portal.