ABSTRACT
The insurance industry managed to regain consumer trust after the 2008 financial crisis, in which the American International Group (AIG) is known to have played a significant role, contributing to the downfall of the global economy through its credit default swaps (McDonald & Paulson, 2015). A 2012 survey found that trust was generally present across a sample of 5,000 customers from the Americas (Ernst & Young, 2012), and the results highlighted that insurance companies should continue focusing on building trust mainly by offering a good customer experience. There are, however, various ways to build consumer trust in addition to the positive customer experience that companies must provide. Most of the ways in which trust is maintained require taking a relationship management approach by which companies prove their legitimacy, namely they show that, in addition to providing useful products and services, they also act in a socially responsible manner (Colleoni, 2013). As of 2016, the Insurance Development Forum, whose membership comprises global executives of major corporations, is focusing on finding ways to expand insurance in developing countries. For this purpose, the forum aims to provide micro and macro solutions that range from individual insurance to products that are addressed to banks and governments. The decision to focus on finding solutions for emergent economies came in the aftermath of the earthquake in Nepal that led to 9,000 deaths, yet was not listed as one of the top insured catastrophes loss for 2015 (Ralph, 2016a).
