Women’s Market Represents Trillion-Dollar Opportunity for Insurance Industry

• This report is a first-of-its-kind study of the women’s insurance market in the emerging economies of Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Thailand, and Turkey
• Women may be the largest growth opportunity in the world for the insurance industry.

By 2030, the insurance industry is expected to earn up to $1.7 trillion from women alone – with almost half coming from only 10 emerging economies, presenting a significant business opportunity for sustainable and inclusive growth, according to a new report released today by AXA, IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and Accenture.

This global report, “SheforShield: Insure Women to Better Protect All”, analyses the business opportunity the women’s market represents for insurers, identifying growth drivers and highlighting women’s evolving and growing protection needs in order to ensure the industry develops the most relevant value-added propositions for this segment.

It finds that the insurance industry has largely overlooked women as a key customer segment – despite significant growth potential in the market. By more effectively reaching out to women, the industry could significantly increase its participation in the economy and further support social and economic development in emerging markets.

Exploring the impact of the women’s market on both the demand for and supply of insurance, the report also highlights the contribution women can make as customer-facing agents, as marketing and sales leaders, overall as distribution professionals who would contribute to expanding protection coverage to clients – both men and women – globally.

“The rising share of women with tertiary education degrees, of women who work, who own or run businesses, of women who earn growing levels of income is leading to a changing and expanding landscape of protection needs,” said Denis Duverne, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the AXA Group. “Better targeting women across the AXA Group is fully consistent with our priorities, as we believe that women will increasingly fuel tomorrow’s growth. We are convinced that the findings outlined in the report will be a key building block towards more concrete initiatives to better cater to women’s evolving needs – serving half of humanity to better protect the whole.”

“At IFC, we believe strongly in leveraging the opportunities that women present as a force for development – as consumers, employees, leaders, and entrepreneurs,” added Jin-Yong Cai, CEO of IFC, a member of the World Bank Group. “We are confident that the findings of this report can help plant the seeds for a thriving women-focused insurance market – enabling women to better protect themselves, their families, communities and societies.”

“By expanding the role of women in the salesforce with proper training and providing a structure that enables them to sell effectively, insurers can foster economic growth while helping improve the lives of women around the world, and at the same time open up new avenues for profitable growth,” said Thomas Meyer, managing director in Accenture’s insurance practice.

The report is based on desk research and econometric modeling, as well as a series of in-depth interviews with industry representatives and associations, brokers, agents, customers, and regulators in the 10 markets. It shows how women’s increased income, improved socioeconomic status and ensuing greater need for protection create a significant opportunity for insurers. It also describes how women’s preferences differ by country, income and lifecycle events, requiring insurers to tailor products and services.

As a next step, the report recommends:

– to gather more and better data on the topic, including how to customize products, services, marketing and distribution to better reach the women’s market;

– to leverage the power of mobile technology;

– to create innovative partnerships to educate customers more widely on their insurance options.

This report has been conducted within the larger framework of the global partnership between AXA and IFC, a partnership which aims to develop the insurance sector in emerging markets to contribute to their sustainable growth. The other areas of cooperation between AXA and IFC are: investing in the insurance industry through co-investments or acquisitions, improving road safety, Infrastructure development, Responsible Investments and MicroInsurance