Growth is the main priority for insurers, and CFOs will focus on building insights to drive decision-making, according to a new global survey by EY.

About 68% of CFOs who participated in the survey name growth, market expansion or mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as their main business driver.

“Regardless of regulatory regime, ongoing intense pressure on margins is forcing insurers to look at every potential way to improve growth and return on capital,” the survey report says.

“This includes moving into new products, new territories and M&A, as well as fulfilling their digital agenda.”

About 52% say relieving pressure on cost margins and improving profit are priorities, according to the global consultant’s largest survey of insurance CFOs.

Respondents rank digital transformation third (42%), recognising how critical it is to integrate finance, actuarial and risk to deliver insight.

The fourth-ranked business driver (33%) is improving Big Data and analytic capabilities.

“Digital technology is driving exponential growth in the volume of data being managed within organisations.

“The challenge to effectively manage large volumes of data and to extract and deliver timely, relevant and concise insight in an efficient manner has never been greater for the CFO.”

CFOs were also asked to rank their finance priorities.

About 74% believe providing better insight through faster, more relevant and integrated financial analysis is critical for decision-making.

In second place (48%) is aligning finance, risk and actuarial information.

CFOs perceive this as a “fundamental requirement” to providing business insights across all key metrics, including capital and risk.

Making the business more efficient through simplification and automation ranks third (47%), followed by fast and secure reporting (41%) and implementing regulatory and financial requirements (33%).