Polish insurance industry may face need to revise its risk sharing model, says KNF's head
If violations of Polish airspace continue, the insurance market may be forced to review its liability exclusion clauses and revise its current risk sharing model, chairman of Poland's financial market regulator KNF Jacek Jastrzebski told the EKF Insurance conference.
"The events of the first ten days of September showed that we find ourselves in a somewhat new reality. I am referring primarily to the violation of Polish airspace by unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones. We must be prepared for the possibility that such incidents may recur," Jastrzebski told the conference.
"To some extent, they may also affect the insurance market, in the sense that we will see repeated examples of various types of damage caused in connection with or as a result of such violations. They are, of course, very complex in nature, because we know that the direct sources of these losses or damages may vary, but they all fall under the category of damages related to airspace violations," he added.
In the view of Polish financial watchdog's head, the insurance market may face the need to, for example, take another look at contractual exclusions of liability or clauses excluding liability.
"This may also require a deeper discussion on the extent to which the traditional division of risks between the insurer and the insured in the context of such events will be in line with general social demand. It may be that the insurance market will face the need to revise the current model, which will be a challenge," Jastrzebski assessed.
As he noted, the Polish economy is facing the need to implement large investment projects, e.g. related to energy transformation.
"These projects will require a great deal of insurance protection. (...) In addition, insurers are also a natural category of long-term strategic investors who could invest in such projects. I think that there is also a lot of room for discussion within the insurance market," the head of KNF told the conference.
Jacek Jastrzebski also pointed to the challenges associated with technological development.
"From the perspective of the insurance market, technologies related to the use of artificial intelligence represent a huge opportunity, but also a risk factor. We are vulnerable to all kinds of cyberthreats. (...) It is crucial to build the resilience of the cyberinsurance sector," he stressed.
pel/ ao/