Issue #1 (Volume 11 2020)

Loss portfolio transfer (LPT) is a reinsurance treaty in which an insurer cedes the policies that have already incurred losses to a reinsurer. This operation can be carried out by an insurance company in order to reduce reserving risk and consequently reduce its capital requirement calculated, according to Solvency II. From the viewpoint of the reinsurance company, being a very complex operation, importance must be given to the methodology used to determine the price of the treaty.
Following the collective risk approach, the paper examines the risk profiles and the reinsurance pricing of LPT treaties, taking into account the insurance capital requirements established by European law. For this purpose, it is essential to calculate the capital need for the risk deriving from the LPT transaction. In the case analyzed, this requirement is calculated under Solvency II legislation, considering the measure of variability determined via simulation. This quantification was also carried out for different levels of the cost of capital rate, providing a range of possible loadings to be applied to the premium.
In the case of the Cost of Capital (CoC) approach, the results obtained provide a lower level of premium compared to the percentile-based method with a range between 2.69% and 1.88%. Besides, the CoC approach also provides the advantage of having an explicit parameter, the CoC rate whose specific level can be chosen by the reinsurance company based on the risk appetite.

Longevity risk management is an area of the life insurance business where the use of Artificial Intelligence is still underdeveloped. The paper retraces the main results of the recent actuarial literature on the topic to draw attention to the potential of Machine Learning in predicting mortality and consequently improving the longevity risk quantification and management, with practical implication on the pricing of life products with long-term duration and lifelong guaranteed options embedded in pension contracts or health insurance products. The application of AI methodologies to mortality forecasts improves both fitting and forecasting of the models traditionally used. In particular, the paper presents the Classification and the Regression Tree framework and the Neural Network algorithm applied to mortality data. The literature results are discussed, focusing on the forecasting performance of the Machine Learning techniques concerning the classical model. Finally, a reflection on both the great potentials of using Machine Learning in longevity management and its drawbacks is offered.

Given the growing threats to the financial sustainability of businesses during the COVID-19 period, anti-crisis development strategies are the basis for ensuring successful operation and maintaining competitiveness in the markets. Insurance companies formulate and implement anti-crisis strategies in accordance with the requirements of the circular economy. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify the main anti-crisis development strategies that insurance companies adhere to during COVID-19. The features of strategies that existed before the pandemic and were formed during the pandemic are identified. Tourism and hotel and catering business is an activity that considers the conditions of the circular economy. It is in this industry that the highest risks arise during the period of COVID-19. An anti-crisis development strategy of insurance companies during a period of pandemics and crises is understood as a tool for resolving contradictions in the development of a company in the event of a crisis or its threat. Moreover, the development process of the insurance company is inevitable, given the manifestations of the circular economy. As a result, insurance companies changed and consolidated anti-crisis development strategies during COVID-19. The newly created concentrating effort strategy combined the strategy of long-term planned changes and the strategy of balancing the interests of the insurance company and stakeholders. Instead, new strategies have emerged to innovate and maintain an adequate level of financial sustainability. It is especially worth highlighting the marketing strategy that ensures the image of insurance companies.

Pandemic affects insurance industry both directly, via health shocks, and indirectly, via financial shocks, as well as via shift in the policyholder behavior and distribution channels. The paper contributes to understanding the impact of COVID-19 on the global and Ukrainian insurance market, provides insights into implementing digital measures and technologies for insurers, in response to changes caused or accelerated by pandemic, building the capabilities to survive and exploit the changing market.
A research of the the dynamics of Ukrainian insurance market changes during the quarantine period was conducted, the main tech achievements of leading insurers were investigated. The paper highlights priorities that insurers need to address in the wake of pandemic (distribution destruction, reinvention of the customer experience, cost structure changes, new protection offerings and new revenue pools), deals with different business strategies that insurers can follow to adopt and pivot in the low-touch economy and reveals new opportunities to extend insurers’ protection offerings and establish new sources of revenue emerged with digital transformation.

Acknowledgment
This project was financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland as part of the «Regional Initiative of Excellence” Programme for 2019–2022. Project No. 021/RID/2018/19. Total project budget: PLN 11 897 131,40.

Environmental, social and governance criteria (ESG) are considered to be the main factors in measuring the sustainability and ethical impact of companies. This article focuses on comparing the ability of insurance companies to use an ESG-driven approach to managing their sustainable development. The study is conducted using comparative analysis, statistical analysis, and a case study method. The study compares six ESG Ratings on four main criteria (dependent variables, independent variables, scale type, sample), that allows choosing the most appropriate rating for the analysis of insurance companies. As a result, 156 insurance companies are compared by the level of ESG risk (low ESG risk – 24 companies, medium ESG risk – 111 companies, high ESG risk – 21 companies) and by geographical affiliation (26 countries) using descriptive statistics. The assessment of effectiveness of the ESG-driven approach to managing sustainable development of insurance companies is carried out on the example of 16 companies by comparing their non-financial reporting (the sample is selected based on of the annual report for 2019-2020). The study identifies the most common guidelines for report development, as well as components of the ESG-driven approach: environmental (waste and pollution, climate change, energy efficiency), social (workforce and diversity, customer engagement, communities), governance (code and values, reporting, risk management). The study systematizes the best practices of insurance companies for applying the ESG-driven approach to manage their sustainable development and highlights the need for insurance companies to improve their reporting and disclosure practices related to the development of the ESG-driven approach.

Acknowledgment
Comments from the Editor and anonymous referees have been gratefully acknowledged.

The purpose of the study is to develop methodological approach for identifying changes in the level of insurance companies’ competitiveness on the travel services market. Based on development of multifactor regression equation, integrated indicators of insurance companies’ competitiveness in 2016–2019 were calculated. The application of three-sigma rule allowed to divide insurance companies by competitiveness levels and to identify that during 2016–2019 most of insurers had sufficient and critical levels of competitiveness and the group of insurance companies with a high level of competitive position is small. The Markov chain theory was used as a research method to determine the probability of insurance companies moving to higher or lower competitiveness levels. The results of Markov’s method showed that the majority of insurance companies are most likely to remain in their initial groups and only insurers with low and sufficient competitiveness have high probability to change their positions. Companies with high competitiveness have very strong positions on the market and there is very low probability that other insurers will capture leaders’ market share in the coming years. So, the use of the developed approach allows predicting a decrease of insurance ability to compete on the travel services market and deciding on the necessity to change the competitive strategy.

In the conditions of insufficient budgetary financing of the health care system and low quality of medical care in the state medical establishments of Ukraine, the importance of extra-budgetary sources of financing becomes increasingly relevant. One such source is voluntary health insurance. The aim of the paper is to compare the state and structure of medical financing in developed countries and in Ukraine, to study the global experience in the functioning of the voluntary health insurance market, and to calculate the potential capacity of the voluntary health insurance sector in Ukraine. For mathematical calculations, 20 absolute indicators of the state of the voluntary health insurance sector, as well as macroeconomic indicators, were used. The annual values of absolute indicators for the period 2010–2019 were used in forming the array of input data. Based on the experience of foreign countries, the paper substantiates the development of the voluntary health insurance in Ukraine as an extra-budgetary source of health care funding. The capacity of the voluntary health insurance sector was defined by the authors as the maximum possible amount of insurance premiums that insurers can receive in the process of selling voluntary health insurance products. The calculations made it possible to conclude that the voluntary health insurance market in Ukraine has the potential for development, as evidenced by the predominance of the potential capacity of the voluntary health insurance segment over its real indicator.