Who will fund and insure the next ten years of industry reconfiguration?

Our new global research shows that AI, climate change and shifting geopolitics are reshaping how we live, work and grow. They’re creating new customer needs, fuelling new business models and blurring the boundaries of sectors and industries.

New ‘domains of growth’ are emerging e.g. how we make and build things, how we move, feed and care for ourselves, and how we fund and insure it all. These aren’t distant trends. Global players like Apple, Microsoft and Amazon are already crossing industry lines, moving into finance and healthcare. 

These new domains will require trillions in capital—and challenge long-standing risk models that have no historical precedent. Where that money comes from, how it’s deployed and who insures the new value pools it creates—will shape Australia’s future at home and on the world stage. 

The opportunity for financial institutions that evolve their business models to capitalise across these emerging ‘human needs-centred domains’ is immense—by 2035 the value on the table will have reached US$7.54 trillion globally. In Asia Pacific that value is US$2.77tn—a 40% increase over the decade.

The coming decade of transformation will require bold capital deployment—and sharper, more human-centred insight as new ‘human-centred’ domains of growth emerge. For Australia’s banks, super funds, insurers and private capital this isn’t just a challenge—it’s a moment of opportunity. 

As Australia’s economy reorganises around emerging needs, financial institutions have a chance to do more than fund growth. They can help shape it.

Global players and private capital are already seizing ground. Think Apple Pay reshaping payments in Australia and worldwide. Blackstone from the capital side—investing in insurance platforms and fintech disruptors, reshaping financial services from the inside out. 
 
Australia’s financial sector has long enjoyed the benefits of stability, largely shielded from shocks by strong regulation, the large pool of savings managed by our superannuation system, and a resilient economy. But that same resilience creates a risk of complacency. Our 28th Annual Global CEO Survey shows it: just a third of Australia’s CEOs report competing in at least one new sector in the past five years. And nearly three-quarters believe they’ll stay viable on their current path for the next decade (far more than their global peers at 55%). 

That status quo won’t hold. With ACCC reforms set to tighten competition laws from 2026,¹ Australia’s tightly held markets—including banking and insurance—are primed for disruption. Whether by nimble new digital-first entrants, global funds or emerging business models, a further shake-up will come. 

As sectors blur and new ways of creating value take hold, Australia’s financial institutions, like the businesses they back, will need to keep pace to capture the opportunity. If they don’t, others will. The capital—and the growth—could flow elsewhere. 

The direction of travel is clear, but legacy constraints of the financial industry may challenge the pace of change.

Regulation, with its stringent compliance requirements, is often cited as a brake on innovation. Could this make venturing into new sectors difficult, or in some cases, has that become a convenient fallback?

Crypto regulation offers a good test case. With Treasury’s proposed digital asset platform regulations expected in mid-2025 ² and the RBA’s Project Acacia exploring central bank digital currency (CBDCs) pilots, Australia is cautiously engaging.³ Yet as countries like the US push ahead with stablecoin-backed payment systems, there’s growing pressure to move from intent to action. The question isn’t whether to regulate, but how to shape regulation that collectively incentivises players to innovate for the good of customers. 

Risk—how it is perceived, priced and managed—will play a big role in shaping where capital flows next and what gets insured along the way. Currently, the industry largely plays it safe—and gets rewarded for doing so—but that leads to stagnation in capital allocation towards bold, future-focused opportunities. That doesn’t have to be the case. Rethinking risk isn’t about abandoning caution, it’s about redefining value in a changing world. 

Australia’s high exposure to climate events like floods and bushfires, does limit capital deployment flexibility. These risks flow directly into lending decisions, investment appetite and insurance coverage. But they’re not immovable. Investing in protective infrastructure, encouraging innovation in building practices and incentivising climate resilience can reduce the risk burden. Insurers will also need to stretch the boundaries of what’s insurable—using their data, modelling and balance sheet strength to reshape products around the changing needs of households and businesses. The greater challenge? Embedding risk solutions into the heart of the new domains of growth, not just reacting after the fact.

Inside the walls of many financial institutions, transformation is already underway—but much of it is internally focused: updating tech, restructuring teams, refining operating models. AI offers a potential leap forward, but most are still in pilot mode. The opportunity is to look up and out, to combine operational reinvention with external innovation and invest in the opportunities that will shape Australia’s next chapter.

Across the world, financial services are being reshaped by first movers who spot gaps in traditional markets and move quickly, often with bold plays that cut across sectors and borders. 

As Australia’s economy reorganises around emerging needs, banks, super funds, insurers and private capital will need to shift beyond traditional sector lenses and risk models. The role isn’t just to finance and insure what exists, but to help shape what’s next.

Super funds—with more than $4 trillion under management—will play a pivotal role, more so than ever.⁵ As Australia’s population ages, the focus of super is shifting from growing wealth to providing reliable retirement income. That shift changes how and where funds invest. It opens the door for super to support future-shaping sectors, and infrastructure—like data centres and digital connectivity, energy and social services—that offer reliable income over time and contribute to economic prosperity.

And they won’t do it alone. Top performing organisations, according to our research, are more than twice as likely as lagging companies to generate at least 60% of their revenue through business ecosystems, and are 1.6 times more likely to use ecosystems strategically to access new markets, capabilities and insights. (Being generous within them also creates an edge, building trust and lowering transaction costs.) Consider the pioneering companies now paying drivers to effectively loan their car battery to the grid; automatically charging and discharging energy.⁶ To make that business case work takes collaboration between vehicle manufacturers, battery manufacturers, energy retailers, energy producers and tech companies. They each benefit from being part of the ecosystem and none can do it alone. 

What are the opportunities for greater collaboration within the financial sector? The transition-to-retirement space seems a natural area for sector collaboration, especially given Australia’s unique superannuation system. Banks, super funds and insurers might find common ground in developing products and services that better support retirees at the point of retirement—a life stage that is currently underserved. 

Co-investment and co-design in solutions around major national challenges like property, climate resilience, and health and aged care services stand out as areas of real opportunity. Whether it’s tackling housing affordability, developing climate-resilient homes (that are safer, insurable and mortgageable), piloting shared-risk mortgage and insurance models with government in high-risk climate areas (boosting lending confidence and insurance coverage), or improving data and resilience modelling across lenders, insurers and policymakers (to improve decision-making and output). All of these require a more joined-up approach to unlock future value. 

And it’s not just domestic players who could help make that happen. Australia’s stability, strong regulatory environment and resilient economy make it an appealing destination for global capital. Investment from the US, The Netherlands and Asia—with Japan, in particular, buying into multiple financial services over the last few years—inject substantial capital into various sectors. While there’s always the possibility that offshore investors could reshape parts of our industry, these moves also open the door to valuable partnerships, sharp market intelligence and competitive edge. Could Australia be doing more to position itself as a magnet for inbound investment? With its smaller population and sophisticated market, it offers an ideal testing ground for innovation—and a springboard into similar economies.

Trust will also be critical. With more cross-sector collaboration and new entrants in the Fund and Insure domain, customers and regulators will demand even more transparency, data security and social benefits. Established players can build trust by showcasing secure systems, responsible data use and investment plans that balance profits with positive social outcomes. 

The winners in the Fund and Insure domain will be those who:

• Are we willing to cross sector boundaries and innovate to keep pace with shifting human-centred needs, underpinned by technological, societal and climate change?
• How will we earn trust—and turn customer transformation into a competitive advantage?
• How will we rethink risk, beyond traditional metrics, to best support Australia’s industries in their transformation - and unlock greater value for our nation?