Insurers flag big risks

Insurance chief risk officers are treating climate risk, data ethics and a possible debt shock as long-term threats that could reshape the business, according to a new EY survey released April 21. (insurancebusinessmag.com) The third annual EY and Institute of International Finance study surveyed chief risk officers and senior risk executives at 106 insurers between November 2025 and January 2026 across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, and Asia-Pacific. Near term, cyber security, strategic risk and third-party dependency ranked highest. (ey.com) (insurancebusinessmag.com) Cyber stayed at the top of the list for the third straight survey cycle, with 80% of respondents putting it in their top five risks over the next 12 months. Another 78% said cyber threats and “digital hostilities” are the main way geopolitical tensions hit their organizations. (insurancebusinessmag.com) (ey.com) The longer-range risks are different. EY said that five to 10 years out, insurers keep circling back to climate transition risk, data privacy and ethics, and global financial stability. (ey.com) That mix points to a basic insurance problem: carriers price policies by estimating future losses, and those estimates get harder when weather patterns shift, customer data rules tighten, and credit markets wobble. EY said risk teams are being pushed to deliver more real-time insight and feed it into business decisions, not just compliance work. (ey.com) (iif.com) The staffing signal in the survey was steadier than the risk list. EY said risk functions are entering a period of stable headcount, with productivity expected to come more from technology, automation and redesigned roles than from broad hiring. (ey.com) The jobs that are growing are more specialized. EY said chief risk officers now see high-quality data, artificial intelligence tools and a digitally skilled workforce as core to next-generation risk management. (ey.com) For customers, those structural pressures can show up in price and availability before they show up in annual reports. Insurance Business said the shifts could affect travel coverage and outdoor-related products as insurers recalculate exposure to weather disruption, operational outages and more volatile claims patterns. (insurancebusinessmag.com) EY’s framing is that the chief risk officer is moving from technical overseer to board adviser as shocks spread faster across vendors, cloud systems, operations and markets. The survey’s closing message was that insurers are rebuilding risk teams around speed, resilience and better data, not bigger org charts. (ey.com 1) (ey.com 2)