Oct. 6, 2025 — Canadian insurers have been urged to treat supply chain fragility as a core business risk rather than a back-office concern.

Speakers at this year’s National Insurance Conference of Canada in Gatineau, Que. warned that geopolitical tensions, tariffs, technology outages and climate disruptions are exposing systemic vulnerabilities that could directly affect insurers’ ability to keep commitments to policyholders.

“Insurance is a promise,” said Sarah Kalma, a partner at professional services firm EY. “If supply chain failure prevents or even delays that promise from being fulfilled, customer trust erodes.”

Speakers told conference delegates that supply chain disruptions are no longer an abstract concern but are increasingly central to the insurance industry’s ability to serve policyholders and manage costs.

“Many organizations rely on third parties to support their most critical operations,” Ms.  Kalma said.

“If those third parties fail, the consequences can be immediate and serious.

“A customer might not get paid on a claim or might not be able to access policy information. And when those incidents occur, the customer isn’t going to blame your vendor. They’re going to blame you.”

Ms. Kalma said the insurance industry’s reliance on a common set of digital providers, particularly cloud and IT services, creates a systemic vulnerability.

She said a single outage could ripple across multiple insurers at once. And cyberattacks targeting weak links in third-party networks only add to the fragility.

“Rebuilding that trust is far more costly than managing the risk upfront,” Ms. Kalma said.

Tiffany Ho, managing director at Accenture, said insurers should view supply chain risk not only as a threat but also as a chance to strengthen competitiveness.

“We have an unprecedented opportunity to build resiliency within our supply chains,” she said.

“Done right, supply chain resiliency can become a source of advantage.”

She said the insurance industry can’t do things the way it did before.

“The forces for change are too strong and the tools are here,” Ms. Ho said.

“The insurers and organizations that step up now will be more resilient and more competitive.”

David Shillingford, co-founder of Everstream Analytics, noted that the past five years have seen both new pressures — such as the pandemic, trade blockages and extreme weather — and an explosion of technological capabilities from IoT sensors to AI-driven analytics.

“There’s more data than ever but it’s often disconnected,” he said.

“And unless it becomes actionable insight, companies can’t respond effectively.”

Mr. Shillingford said insurers have an opportunity to get closer to supply chain data, both to refine underwriting and to create new risk-transfer solutions.

“There’s already risk transfer up and down the supply chain — in cargo, property, business interruption,” he said.

“The insurers that figure out how to partner with companies and use real-time data will be able to create more accurate, dynamic products. That’s the opportunity.”

Mr. Shillingford said insurance will always be intertwined with supply chains.

“Trade wars and disruptions don’t just raise supply chain costs,” he said.

“They put pressure on claims and business interruption cover, especially for critical infrastructure like data centres. That’s a risk insurers need to pick up on.”

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