How we fund and insure

As industries change, so do the opportunities for companies that finance them

Change is afoot. Industries are reorganising around human needs—to get around, to build spaces for living and working, to care for our health. Established businesses and new ventures alike are creating value in innovative ways; they’re working across sector boundaries to combine diverse ideas and capabilities into offerings for the growing needs-centred domains of the economy.

This flurry of industry reconfiguration is providing new opportunities for the financial economy, too. As a critical enabler of other domains, the Fund and Insure domain is fertile ground for cross-sector collaboration among non-traditional partners, providing them with new, more efficient models for capital allocation and financial services. Inventing such models means rethinking not only how and where capital is deployed, but who deploys it—and conceiving of capital allocation as a domain of growth unto itself.

Financial firms can reinvent themselves within the shifting economic landscape.

As companies evolve within domains, institutions in capital markets, as well as private equity and principal investors, stand to gain by applying novel approaches to risk, valuation and portfolio management. Winning companies will reimagine their roles as allocators of capital, much as traditional banks did a decade ago, when insurers, asset managers, tech giants and others began offering private credit. The redistribution of market share in financial services will be significant: we estimate that US$604 billion could change hands in 2025 as a result of reinvention moves by companies in the banking and capital markets, insurance, and asset and wealth management sectors.

Capturing the value in the decade ahead

Businesses that grasp the full potential of the Fund and Insure domain will have the edge in 2035.

The extent of that growth will depend on how megatrends play out.

To help business leaders envision the possibilities, we modelled the Fund and Insure domain’s growth through 2035, while accounting for climate and tech disruptions. The result is a range of three potential scenarios, spanning a low of 1.3% below baseline and a high of 12.4% above.

Sizing the Fund and Insure opportunity

The nature and scale of the new business opportunities that emerge in the Fund and Insure domain will depend on how AI adoption and climate action progress. Your strategy should account for a range of possible outcomes.

Trust-Based Transformation

Global alignment | Responsible Tech | Sustainable Solutions

Steady economic growth and predictable returns drive financial services towards stability. Government-backed initiatives and public–private partnerships add further support, propelling long-term investments in technology and green projects. Government incentives enable firms to capitalise on opportunities in sustainable infrastructure and other social and environmental aims, thereby fostering resilience and growth in a secure economic environment.

Who succeeds?

With an abundance of stable government-backed infrastructure projects to pursue, a private credit provider in Philadelphia partners with a regional bank and an office of Pennsylvania’s state development agency. Together, they offer construction loans with flexible repayment structures tied to a common set of international sustainability standards. A Berlin-based software developer joins the consortium, providing AI tools to assess the project’s climate risk, track mitigation strategies and monitor environmental impacts.

Tense Transition

Regional alignment | Fragmented Tech | Subscale sustainability

Geopolitical tensions lead to political and economic fragmentation. Diverging regulations make it difficult for financial firms to adopt global practices and technologies. Instead, they develop agile mechanisms to finance smaller-scale, regionally focused operations. New infrastructure becomes critical to managing national-security risks. Companies position themselves as leaders by financing resilient industrial systems, such as high-tech manufacturing and supply chains.

Who succeeds?

Larger financial services organisations break up into independent regional entities. These compete with reemerging smaller banks in areas where local knowledge is crucial, such as community lending subsidised by national economic development funds. For major development efforts, such as the reshoring of semiconductor manufacturing, consortiums of regional financial players establish investment hubs. To overcome obstacles to cross-border services, a fintech scales a multi-jurisdictional network via blockchain.

Turbulent Times

Atomised interests | Disruptive and divisive tech | Suspended sustainability

Regulatory challenges and market volatility cause intense competition, leading to disruptions in traditional financial sectors. Flexible deal structures help financial players cope with the volatility. Some companies position themselves as pioneers by offering financial and operational support to turn around struggling businesses while minimising their own long-term exposure. Clients, meanwhile, prize convenience and speed over long-term security, prompting companies to respond by prioritising cost-effective and flexible financial solutions.

Who succeeds?

A handful of large banks create a blockchain network as the basis for a cryptocurrency service platform. Their offering supports integration between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies. It also lets small to medium-sized retailers offer payments, lending and other financial services. Risk-tolerant private investors fund alternative exchanges and increase their cryptocurrency holdings. Those seeking more stable returns acquire infrastructure assets, like toll roads, from cash-strapped governments.

Learn more about the three divergent tomorrows

Learn more

To reinvent for multiple tomorrows, take action today

The process of reinvention needs to start now, with a focus on priorities that respond to the reconfiguration that’s already underway. This means driving hard towards a set of innovation imperatives, securing competitive advantages in areas such as technology and trust, and turning obstacles such as climate threats into enablers of growth.

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