Insurance case study

Operational resilience and continuity assurance for a multinational insurer

Insurance and reinsurance organisations operate at the centre of systemic economic stability. During major disruption events, insurers are expected not only to remain operational, but to provide continuity of claims capability, risk insight, and financial confidence across entire markets.

Resilience Guard GmbH was engaged by a major multinational insurance group operating across Europe and international regions. The organisation required enhanced operational resilience capability across critical service platforms, catastrophe response governance, and continuity assurance aligned with international best practice.

This engagement focused on resilience where interruption is not acceptable, including claims continuity, policyholder service stability, and crisis governance under extreme event conditions.

Business context: Insurance resilience is market resilience
Insurers face disruption environments shaped by:

• large scale catastrophe events and systemic claims surges
• cyber enabled interruption of customer service platforms
• regulatory escalation under operational resilience expectations
• dependency on outsourced ICT and third party service providers
• increasing assurance requirements under frameworks related to DORA

Unlike many industries, insurers must remain functional precisely when disruption is at its peak.
Executive leadership required confidence that critical insurance services could sustain continuity under scenarios such as:

• cyber disruption affecting claims and underwriting platforms
• mass claims events exceeding operational thresholds
• outage of key outsourced service environments
• crisis escalation requiring regulator and stakeholder coordination

The core question was clear:
How can the insurer maintain uninterrupted operational capability during extreme disruption, while strengthening audit and supervisory resilience confidence?

The situation: Continuity maturity uneven across service domains
The organisation operated across multiple regions, with differing maturity across business functions.
Key challenges included:

• inconsistent recovery objectives across claims environments
• limited resilience governance for outsourced ICT services
• fragmented crisis escalation during high volume disruption
• lack of unified operational resilience measurement across regions
• growing regulatory scrutiny of systemic service continuity

The insurer required resilience capability built around financial service operational reality, not generic continuity documentation.

Resilience Guard delivery focus: Resilience built around claims continuity and crisis governance

Resilience Guard structured the engagement around insurance specific continuity outcomes, with emphasis on catastrophe operational readiness and systemic service protection.
The work was delivered through four insurance tailored resilience pillars.

1. Claims critical service prioritisation and surge continuity
Resilience Guard worked with executive leadership to identify which insurance services must remain stable under disruption.

Focus areas included:

• claims intake and processing continuity
• catastrophe surge service capability
• policyholder communication and support stability
• underwriting continuity for critical client segments
• financial settlement and escalation governance

Outputs included:

• tiered criticality classification for essential insurance services
• definition of maximum tolerable disruption thresholds
• restoration sequencing aligned with policyholder impact

2. Business impact analysis aligned with ISO 22301 and supervisory expectations
A structured ISO 22301 aligned BIA was conducted across claims, underwriting, and operational service platforms.

The analysis defined:

• recovery time objectives for catastrophe critical functions
• recovery point objectives for customer and claims systems
• minimum staffing requirements during disruption escalation
• resource thresholds ensuring continuity under surge demand
This provided measurable governance supporting audit and regulatory assurance.

3. Outsourcing resilience and DORA contextual readiness
Insurance organisations increasingly depend on third party ICT providers and outsourced processing environments.

Resilience Guard strengthened outsourcing resilience through:

• mapping of critical outsourced service dependencies
• continuity assurance expectations aligned with financial sector resilience standards
• escalation governance for ICT provider disruption events
• audit ready resilience evidence supporting DORA related client assurance demands

This reduced systemic exposure driven by external service interruption.

4. Crisis governance for catastrophe scale disruption events

Insurers require crisis structures capable of functioning during extreme event conditions.

Resilience Guard strengthened catastrophe crisis governance through:

• executive escalation thresholds linked to claims surge impact
• unified crisis command structures across regions
• regulator and stakeholder communication governance
• exercising programmes testing operational stability under extreme disruption

Quantified outcomes delivered
The engagement produced measurable uplift across operational recovery, crisis coordination, and audit readiness.

Recovery time objective improvement
Across claims critical service functions, the insurer achieved:
• 30 to 40 percent reduction in recovery time objectives
• defined restoration sequencing ensuring policyholder critical services stabilise first
• improved catastrophe event operational continuity capability

Outsourcing resilience uplift
Following integration of third party continuity oversight:
• critical supplier disruption exposure reduced significantly
• outsourcing accountability embedded into resilience governance
• improved supervisory confidence in ICT continuity assurance

Operational resilience maturity uplift
A structured maturity scoring model was applied across business regions.
Initial maturity variance:
• Level 2 developing in decentralized claims units
• Level 4 managed in mature service hubs
Post engagement baseline:
• Level 4 maturity achieved across all critical operational resilience domains
• roadmap established toward Level 5 optimised resilience assurance

Audit and regulatory preparedness enhancement
The insurer strengthened resilience evidence supporting:
• ISO 22301 aligned continuity governance
• operational resilience supervisory expectations
• catastrophe escalation traceability
• improved stakeholder confidence during disruption events
Executive leadership reported significantly increased assurance in systemic continuity readiness.

Explore related sector resilience case studies
Resilience Guard supports multinational organisations across critical sectors including:

• Energy and terminal infrastructure resilience
→ Explore the energy case study

• Telecommunications connectivity disruption preparedness
→ Explore the telecommunications case study

• Transportation and aviation mobility continuity programmes
→ Explore the transportation case study

• Pharmaceutical supply chain resilience governance
→ Explore the pharma case study

• Technology and distribution ecosystem continuity assurance
→ Explore the technology case study

Frequently asked questions: Insurance resilience
How does ISO 22301 apply to insurance organisations?
ISO 22301 provides the governance framework for business continuity. In insurance it ensures claims critical services, customer support, and catastrophe continuity priorities are measurable and auditable across operations.

Why is outsourcing resilience essential for insurers?
Insurance continuity increasingly depends on outsourced ICT and third party services. Effective resilience requires structured oversight, evidence readiness, and escalation governance aligned with operational resilience expectations.

What measurable outcomes can insurance resilience programmes deliver?
High maturity programmes typically achieve:
• 30 to 50 percent faster recovery capability
• stronger catastrophe surge continuity
• improved regulatory and audit confidence
• enhanced crisis escalation coordination across regions

Book your resilience consultation
Resilience Guard GmbH supports insurance organisations across Switzerland, Europe, and international markets with award winning expertise in:
• ISO 22301 aligned business continuity
• Operational resilience governance for catastrophe scale disruption
• Outsourcing and ICT continuity assurance
• Crisis command capability and executive exercising
→ Book Your Resilience Consultation