SMN Virtual - Marine Insurance: Are the Business Models Still Fit for Purpose?

As sensor-based and digital technologies advance at lightning speed in the maritime field, the scale and frequency of insurance losses still continue to mount. Many of them involve large container ships and incidents in port, as well as large-scale container losses or major fires at sea. In some cases, ship dimensions are such that bridge personnel are unaware of a threat to vessel safety. Yet technologies are now available to support ship masters and navigators to avoid or minimise the impact of such events. These include sensor-based position monitoring from strategic positions on a ship’s hull to keep bridge personnel constantly informed of relative positions and generate alarms if rates of change are too great. Under-deck sensors can monitor changes in temperature and the presence of smoke or gas. Experts question whether nautical training establishments are abreast of these developments. Are students today, the next generation of seafarers tomorrow, taught how to make the most of sensor-based digital technologies in ship operation? Recently, the size of claims has risen dramatically and sorting them out has become an increasingly lengthy and litigious process. Unfortunate seafarers are often the unwitting victims. Both hull and machinery insurers and P&I Clubs, which use a mutual business model to co-insure their shipowner members for third-party risks, are in the firing line, with a growing number of large claims that exceed the levels which insurers can handle individually. With digital sensor-based technologies advancing at a pace education struggles to match, and with the recent dramatic rise in size and complication of insurance claims, is the current business model suitable? In this virtual session, our panel will discuss just that.