As the industry looks ahead to 2026, Canada’s insurance landscape is being shaped by a complex mix of climate pressures, global expansion, and the rising demand for sophisticated risk data. For Allianz Commercial, the priorities differ somewhat from insurers more heavily exposed to personal lines or catastrophe losses.
“Our clients tend to be heavily fire-protected – concrete and steel installations rather than wood-frame houses,” Bernard McNulty (pictured), chief agent in Canada for Allianz Commercial, told Insurance Business. “So while we’ve had some small wildfire claims, they’re not catastrophic to us.”
Instead of large-scale catastrophe losses, McNulty said that Allianz is concentrating on helping clients manage their own risk retentions and adapt to a rapidly evolving climate landscape. Many of Allianz’s commercial clients, he added, carry sizable deductibles, often in the range of $1 million. This means that risk prevention becomes just as important as insurance coverage.
McNulty explained that the insurer prioritizes helping clients prevent losses that would otherwise fall within those retention thresholds. That involves both technical solutions and closer collaboration with clients’ in-house teams. The goal is not just to provide coverage after the fact, but to actively reduce exposures before they materialize. “Anything we can do to help them mitigate losses within their retention is a priority,” he said.
McNulty said that such a stance is reinforced by Allianz’s ability to draw on its global footprint. With operations spanning Europe, Asia, and the Americas, the company can bring lessons from diverse geographies to Canadian clients. McNulty noted that Allianz has supported major projects in harsh environments such as Norway and Greenland. By tapping into the knowledge of the underwriters and engineers who worked on those developments, Allianz Canada can bring tested solutions to domestic infrastructure projects.
Climate change remains a concern, but McNulty emphasized that Allianz is less focused on catastrophic wildfire or flood risk than on ensuring its clients are prepared for the operational impacts of a shifting environment. The company is also facilitating knowledge transfer from its European offices, where regulators and clients are often ahead in developing climate adaptation strategies. “Any information, thought leadership, or sharing that we can do from our European offices, we’ll share that in Canada,” McNulty said. “Some of our clients take us up on that.”
If climate is reshaping the risk environment, multinational growth is shaping Allianz’s commercial plans. McNulty said that more Canadian businesses are looking to expand their global footprint, and they expect insurers to keep pace.
“The biggest growth area continues to be multinational,” he said. “Lots of Canadians with companies looking to expand. If they’re in three countries now, they’d like to be in six.”
Allianz’s ability to operate in more than 200 jurisdictions positions it well to support those ambitions. For some clients, the challenge is not just expansion but the scale and complexity of operations, he warned.
That kind of global reach requires an insurer that can handle enormous amounts of granular risk data. Each location represents a potential exposure, and insurers must be able to capture and transmit details instantly if a claim arises. “Should they get a claim, we want that information on that particular location to our claims people instantly so they can start working on that to get that business back in operation,” McNulty said.
For Allianz, the next stage of competition in commercial insurance will hinge on how well insurers can manage and mobilize data. Beyond underwriting accuracy, the ability to rapidly access site-specific information will be essential to resolving claims quickly and supporting business continuity.
McNulty argued that by 2026, Canadian insurers will need to focus just as much on information agility as on underwriting capacity. That means investing in systems that allow local teams to benefit from insights generated across the global Allianz network. It also means ensuring that claims professionals have immediate access to relevant data so they can reduce downtime for multinational clients.
Looking ahead, McNulty sees 2026 as a year when Canadian insurers must balance three interrelated priorities: adapting to climate pressures, supporting clients’ global expansion, and embedding data-driven solutions into every part of the value chain.
Success, he said, will depend on the ability to combine global expertise with local execution. Canadian clients expect insurers to provide not only coverage but also practical advice, engineering guidance, and the ability to move capital and claims payments efficiently across borders.
In McNulty’s view, the Canadian insurance market is entering a period where resilience will depend less on traditional product lines and more on an insurer’s ability to anticipate change, share knowledge, and enable clients to operate confidently in volatile conditions. “It’s not just the number of countries, but the sophistication and the data on all of those locations,” he said. “That’s where we can make a difference.”
