ABI sees ‘opportunity’ for UK’s G20 presidency to tackle protection gap after joining alliance

The ABI sees “an opportunity for the G20 presidency to look at tackling the protection gap” after forming a new alliance with insurance bodies representing Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

That is according to Hannah Gurga, director general at the ABI, who was speaking during a media briefing yesterday (6 October 2026) as the four nations insurance alliance was signed.

The alliance comes in response to the emerging risks that have been growing across the four economies, including climate risk, persistent inflation, regulatory cost, premium affordability and a growing protection gap.

Gurga said that the alliance is coincidentally timed with the UK’s G20 presidency, which starts in 2027. 

She explained: ”We feel there is an opportunity for the G20 presidency to look at tackling the protection gap.

“This alliance between our four associations is a platform that our respective governments can call upon to inform that programme and we are collectively keen to see protection gaps being explored as part of that presidency. 

”More to be done, but I think the presence today, particularly of the Australian delegation from third parliament, is a very positive signal that there is a bipartisan commitment to making sure that each of our nations is resilient to the different challenges that we face.”

Boosting work

The establishment of the alliance aims to formalise and boost work between the four countries for the benefit of insurers and their customers, regulators and policymakers.

Gurga said “there is an opportunity for us to bring together other stakeholders into the conversation”.

She added: “It struck me during the discussion, we need to make sure we have the four nations insurance alliance at the table, the industry, the government and parliament representatives, but also industry in its broader sense.

”Particularly, the mortgage lenders need to also be part of this conversation and I would like to take away a reflection how we go about doing that.”

Meanwhile, Andrew Hall, chief executive at the Insurance Council of Australia, admitted that insurance has “gone through 20 years of being taken for granted until suddenly availability and affordability became a real challenge”.

”Governments are realising that it’s a global market for capital that they’re competing in and to be able to tell the right story in resilience and mitigation is critically important to attract that capital [and] to be able to do what you want to do and achieve as a country,” he said. 

”In the last couple of days our delegations heard a lot about AI and the most startling thing we’ve heard from capital providers was on their estimates – there’s simply not enough insurance capital in the world to underwrite the rollout of data centres. If that’s the case, property and casualty (P&C) insurers are now going to be competing for that money as well to just keep doing their day job.

“We’re going to have to have an even better narrative and story to show that our houses are built in the right locations, that they’re stronger, that they’re durable, that they’re going to withstand what’s thrown at them for the next 50 to 100 years. All of that leads us to how we come together.”