Leadership Insights: Ryan Birbeck discusses our evolving Claims strategy

Mark: On Aviva leadership insights, I'm joined now by Ryan Birbeck. He is Claims Director for commercial lines. Ryan, great to have you with us on the show. To kick things off, tell us a little bit about how you've been building out the team over the last few months.

Ryan: Hi, Mark, good to see you. The team is building out as the business evolves. If I pick a few areas, our claims relationship team, we have set up in a way that there are two clear areas of focus. The first is brokers. We have aligned the team regionally to work side by side with our distribution colleagues. They are there to increase visibility and give one single face to market for brokers. The other part of that team is set up to focus on clients. They work hand in hand with the underwriting teams in the Global, Corporate and Specialty business and the UK commercial business. They set up bespoke claims programs for customers that have more complex insurance program needs. Another bit I'd probably call out is the growth of our Financial Lines and Specialty Lines claims teams. We acquired Probitas in 2024, and as part of that, we want to grow those lines of business so our claims teams need to grow with them. And finally, brokers tell us all the time that they love our in-house Commercial Loss-Adjusting team. We have increased and extended the capability that is in that team by acquiring talent that has chartered accountant capability and also building surveyors in addition to the loss adjusters. So we can really help customers in different ways when they suffer an unfortunate loss. So, lots going on and the teams will grow within claims as the Aviva business grows.

Mark: And I suppose it's a related question, but what have been some of the main developments in the business overall in the last few months?

Ryan: So, we constantly challenge ourselves from a claims perspective to build stronger and better customer and broker solutions. One of the things that brokers ask for is for us to trade in an efficient way and be responsive. And that's no different for claims. So, I'm really proud that we have launched the first API in the broker market in conjunction with our partners at Acturis. That connects brokers' claims systems to the Aviva claims platform. It provides real-time updates from the point of notification through to the completion of a claim with things like reserve movements in between. It's a fantastic development and we're excited to talk to brokers about it in 2025. The other development in terms of our business has been really the growth of the commercial motor claims proposition. We've recruited heavily in 2024 and also Solus, our wholly owned in-house repair network, opened five new sites across the UK. As a result of that, we've got a proposition that we believe can differentiate, it controls the end-to-end customer journey. If you think you notify a claim, hand us, manage that process through to completion. But also from a repair perspective, we have Solus who own that as well as the engineering inspection solutions. And we've launched also the commercial large network, which is a bespoke solution focussing on vehicles, normally outside of the typical repair garage capability. Our challenge, our focus is to make sure the brokers and customers feel a difference in 2025. Those are both areas where we've acted on feedback, but we now need to make it happen.

Mark: And taking a step back from the business itself, what are some of the broader macro trends that you're seeing in the market at the moment and how are you responding to those?

Ryan: So, we deal with hundreds of thousands of claims every year. So, you do get to see lots of trends from an economic perspective and a social perspective. I guess I'd probably call out the growth in insurance fraud. We are seeing opportunistic fraud at an individual claims level, but also more systemic and sophisticated types. I would say Aviva's ethos is to pay claims fairly and quickly when they are genuine and give and offer treatment to customers that need it. There are probably three types of fraud that I would call out. The first is around injury claims. We are seeing cost being added in from certain claimant solicitors, from medical experts and also rehab providers. The second is around technology. So, whilst generative AI is a massive opportunity in one sense, it's a threat from a claims perspective in others. The ability to create false images and documents has a potential to upset the claims validation process. The final piece that I'd probably mention is around paid ad spoofing. That is where you go onto a search engine and possibly look for your broker or insurer contact details. The response comes back and you might go to an ad where the company sitting behind the ad is not who it purports to be. And if something goes wrong in the claims process, that can cause significant reputational damage. I think Aviva are well placed to help brokers and customers tackle this. So, for example, our teams who look after employee's liability claims, public liability claims and motor bodily injury, they have sophisticated and award winning techniques to identify fraud and cost inflation, but also to tackle and mitigate that. The second is around our counter-fraud team. We have a large team in-house that is investing in technology to look at the future threats, but also working with regulators, doing public awareness campaigns and generally trying to help tackle the root causes of these issues. And we will take tough action and take legal action where we feel it's needed too. The bit I would sort of say to brokers and customers is, Aviva is aware of these issues. We are investing to make sure we tackle them and we are always looking to protect the cost of our customers because it is unfair when it hits their claims experience.

Mark: So, as you look out across 2025, what are some of the key deliverables for you? So, you want to make sure that your broker clients are getting from Aviva.

Ryan: So, as I said earlier, we constantly challenge ourselves to evolve and improve our broker and customer claims propositions. And I also refer to our new market-leading Acturis API. A key focus for 2025 is to scale that up, so that as many brokers as possible benefit from the technology and the efficiency and responsiveness that it brings. I'm really proud of the team that they haven't stood still since delivering the API. We have gone live with the ability for brokers to upload files into our claims broker portal. That means that we can transact more e-notifications and generally handle correspondence more efficiently. The key aspect for me on what brokers will see is around the message that we want to get out there, that the claims leadership team is focused on improving broker sentiment towards claims. Brokers are going to see more propositions, increased awareness of existing propositions where we feel like we have a real differentiator from a customer perspective. So, there's definitely more to come for brokers and customers in 2025.

Mark: So, how can brokers get more involved with what Aviva has to offer?

Ryan: The key call to action for me is, as I said, we've created a broker-aligned claims relationship team. Please get in touch with your Claims Relationship Lead and find out about A - helping navigate our teams, B - the propositions that we have and C - any events and road shows that we'll be doing because they are a key part of our commitment to brokers across the UK.

Mark:  Ryan Birbeck. Thank you.

Ryan: Thank you.