Summer questions: IAG CEO Amanda Whiting’s warning about insurance availability and affordability

IAG NZ chief executive Amanda Whiting urges local and central government to stop allowing building in "dumb places". Photo / Supplied

IAG New Zealand chief executive Amanda Whiting reflects on what’s been a fairer weather year. Trading under the AMI, State, NZI, NAC, Lumley and Lantern brands, and selling products via ASB, BNZ, Westpac and The Co-operative Bank, IAG insures more than a trillion dollars of commercial and domestic assets. Whiting talks to the Herald about the company’s “gender affirmation” leave entitlement, and why insurance might not be as widely available in the future.

How would you describe 2024 for your business?

It was a year of recovery for our customers impacted by Cyclone Gabrielle and the North Island floods. It was a tough year for consumers and the affordability of insurance was top of mind for me. We continued to invest in transforming our business to make things simpler and more affordable. We also started to see relief in premium inflation.

The year also saw us focus on the value we can offer beyond insurance. We expanded our adjacency services – AMI MotorHub, HomeHub and Roadside Rescue – to better support our customers and we received great feedback.

What will be your biggest business challenges in 2025?

I’d summarise the biggest business challenges as: making sure insurance remains available; continuing to transform our business by incorporating new technology; influencing local and central government to stop building in dumb places (i.e. those with known hazard risk); and encouraging more people to contribute to this country’s solution to managing natural hazards.

When disaster strikes, our country typically favours response and recovery over risk reduction and resilience and, as a result, our most hazard-prone communities face an uncertain future.

We want to keep providing financial security to as many New Zealanders as possible – as we always have – but if we don’t reduce some of our natural hazard risk, it may impact the future availability and affordability of insurance in some areas.

What opportunities do you see in 2025?

I’m an optimist, so I think New Zealand is turning the corner on the challenging few years we’ve had due to weather events and economic difficulties. I’d like to think we can start to enjoy a much more settled period.

We will continue to work closely with the Government, as I firmly believe the opportunity for New Zealand is to lead the way on adaptation, globally, and ensure New Zealanders feel safe and secure in their communities.

The opportunity for us is to continue our shift from offering insurance with limited customer touchpoints to a connected business offering multiple services. We’re seeing this already with our adjacent hub services and have plans to continue to expand our presence and the breadth of services we offer. Watch this space.

What will it take to kickstart New Zealand’s economy?

I’m confident we’ll see the economy improve over the coming quarters. In terms of kickstarting the New Zealand economy, I think it’s going to take population growth through immigration and a focus on retaining our talent.

Education and innovation are also important parts of any economic turnaround, especially if we’re going to provide opportunities for the next generation of leaders. I’ve always admired the innovation that New Zealand has fostered and would love to see the country as a hub of innovation again.

How will a Trump presidency affect the geopolitical dynamics?

Honestly, who knows? I think our focus should remain on what this new environment means for the investor and reinsurance capital that fuels our ability to support Kiwi families, businesses and the broader economy.

New Zealand needs to continue to be seen as an attractive and reliable destination for investment. Key to supporting that outcome is dealing with the growing impacts from climate change and our natural hazards and the volatility they create.

I’m concerned that at a global level, climate change initiatives may be deprioritised, which would be a huge step back. I also think we may see more localism as Trump moves to protect the US and other countries could follow.

What are the concrete actions your company has taken to reduce climate change?

We’ve done a lot in this space and I’m really proud. Our efforts to reduce our impact on climate change were recognised at the recent ANZIIF Awards.

Some of the concrete actions we’ve taken include: entering into a three-year renewable energy agreement with Ecotricity, procuring 100% renewable energy for our corporate offices and Hub Services sites, and transitioning our corporate fleet to hybrid and EVs. We’re almost 100% through and we’re now sharing our knowledge through the NZI EV Fleet Guide.

Our climate focus extends to our Hub Services. Our AMI MotorHub in Onehunga, backed by property landlord PFI, installed 135 rooftop solar panels, which is estimated to reduce the site’s dependence on grid electricity by more than 20% annually.

We continue to help build our customers’ resilience to the impacts of climate change through AMI, State and NZI’s twice-yearly Wild Weather Tracker. The report provides insights from our claims data for severe weather events and helps people to understand the impact of climate change on their communities and to better prepare for wild weather.

How are you increasing diversity in your business?

IAG has a long-standing commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

I’m committed to employees feeling comfortable and supported when bringing their whole selves to work, and we have a range of ways we do this. For example, we offer parental leave to both primary and secondary caregivers; we’ve introduced changes to our domestic violence leave so any of our people experiencing family and domestic violence (or who provide support to a family member who does), are entitled to paid leave; and we’ve introduced gender affirmation leave to help any of our people transition to their authentic gendered selves.

We also provide free access to Sonder, a platform that provides mental health, medical and safety support so our teams can get the right care at the right time.

We are committed to embracing te ao Māori and continue to support intern programmes with Tupu Toa, First Foundation and our Graduate Programme to build a pipeline of talent.

As part of the Champions for Change community, I’m passionate about the role of the workplace in enabling parents to have meaningful careers.

What was your New Year’s resolution?

Probably the same as many people - exercise more, eat well, drink less and find more moments of joy. Hopefully that lasts longer than January!

What would you recommend as a good podcast to listen to over Summer?

I feel like life can get so busy and downtime should be true downtime. Music is so joyful and calming – it’s my happy place. According to my 2024 Spotify Wrapped, my most listened-to artist is John Mayer so perhaps it will be more of him this summer, or I might even try to up my game!