Deregulation, societal change, medical, scientific and technology advancements, population growth and legal reforms globally are helping to create an environment which enables newer risks to develop and potentially new areas claims to quickly become established. Recently, talc, glyphosate (and other pesticides), opioids, and sugar have been the subject of litigation in the USA. We are seeing a rapid increase in claims relating to climate change, environmental liabilities and pollution issues. Alongside this, new developments in the property and construction sector, set against the issues arising from some of the newer construction materials, particularly cladding, glass and eco-building techniques are a cause for concern, and supply chain risks are high on the agenda for many corporates. Technology risks such as cyber, nanotechnology, 3 and 4 D printing, drones and the “Internet of Things” are likely to generate increasing claims levels across different classes of insurance business. Silent cyber will continue to be a concern in the coming year as insurers act to address the regulatory concerns. The risk landscape for 2020 and beyond is a world of both known knowns, and “unknown unknowns.
