CEOs of Portugal’s leading insurance companies discussed the future of the sector at CATÓLICA-LISBON
CATÓLICA-LISBON hosted over 200 industry professionals on Wednesday, April 23rd, for the conference "Innovation and Transformation in Insurance in Portugal", a landmark event that brought together the CEOs of the country’s leading insurance companies. In a fully packed auditorium, the speakers debated the major challenges facing the industry and the role of technology in its ongoing transformation.
Organised as part of the executive programme "Innovation and Transformation in Insurance", in partnership with NTT Data, the event featured a roundtable discussion with Rogério Campos Henriques, CEO of Fidelidade; Luís Menezes, CEO of Grupo Ageas Portugal; Pedro Carvalho, CEO of Generali Tranquilidade; and Teresa Brantuas, CEO of Allianz Portugal. The session was moderated by Nuno Castro, Partner at NTT DATA and insurance expert, alongside Paulo Bracons, Programme Director at CATÓLICA-LISBON.
According to Nuno Moreira da Cruz, Dean of Executive Education at CATÓLICA-LISBON, "the insurance sector is currently facing the greatest challenges". In his opening remarks, he highlighted regulation, population longevity, and climate change as key areas of concern for the future.
Also speaking at the opening, Filipe Santos, Dean of CATÓLICA-LISBON, stressed the importance of collaboration among industry players: "It is crucial that companies in the insurance sector work together. Rather than following individual paths, there is a strategic opportunity for collaboration. Together, we are stronger in tackling common challenges and in contributing to a more prosperous, healthy, and sustainable Portugal".
The roundtable covered a range of pressing topics, including climate change, demographic shifts driven by an ageing population, risk prevention, financial literacy, protection gaps, and the efficiency gains brought by digitalisation.
Rogério Campos Henriques, CEO of Fidelidade, highlighted sustainability and demographic longevity as two of the greatest challenges for the insurance industry. He argued for the need for a strategic vision grounded in technological innovation, not only to support business goals but also to drive changes in societal behaviour.
Similarly, Luís Menezes, CEO of Grupo Ageas Portugal, emphasised the digital challenge facing the industry, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence. Despite the complexity of its adoption, he advocated for prevention as the cornerstone of the strategy, especially in the health insurance domain: "We believe prevention is important for two reasons. Firstly, in the context of health, it’s clear—we’re contributing to individual well-being. Secondly, from a risk perspective, we reduce individual risk, and therefore mutualised risk also decreases. But someone has to bear the cost, and in this case, it’s the healthcare providers".
Pedro Carvalho, CEO of Generali Tranquilidade, shared a similar view, noting that technology enables improvements in identifying and assessing risks, which in turn allows for more proactive prevention: "Technology helps because it enables us to identify risks in a more precise and quantified way. It will allow us to identify risks that we currently can’t detect or evaluate. It will also significantly enhance our capacity for prevention. The potential of technology to help prevent environmental phenomena is enormous". He also pointed to the lack of political awareness and adequate financial reserves to respond to extreme climate events, such as a national disaster fund for earthquakes, and criticised the widespread lack of financial literacy and awareness regarding the population’s protection needs.
Teresa Brantuas, CEO of Allianz Portugal, reinforced the idea that technology should be seen as a facilitating tool, underlining the importance of gathering user feedback to assess the impact of innovations: "Technology is an enabler. There’s no way we can improve service quality, productivity, or performance without investing in technology and digital transformation. (…) We are already very close to our customers, and with digital transformation and new technologies, we’re getting even closer. We’re responding to their needs and expectations far better than we were a few years ago".
The event also featured a keynote by João Ribeiro da Costa, Senior Affiliate Professor at CATÓLICA-LISBON, who offered a comprehensive perspective on how artificial intelligence and emerging technologies are modernising the insurance sector, from process automation to the personalisation of customer services.