QBE intends to broaden its use of technology as part of a group-wide overhaul, CEO Pat Regan says.

“When we use technology, it’s much more about helping us be smarter about how we do risk selection, providing the right price for the right risk, than it is about anything like job cuts going forward,” he told CNBC in an interview in Hong Kong.

“We are building quite a systematic plan to make sure we do that, to put the right investments in place, use technology better, use data science better… we are [building] exciting partnerships with insurtech, fintech companies to help us do that as well.”

Mr Regan, who was in Hong Kong for an investment conference, says the insurer is working to turn around loss-making operations in North America and Asia.

“We’ve got a strong business in Australia, we’ve got a strong business in Europe, and the trick for us really is to have the same level of performance everywhere we do business, to improve the consistency of what we do.

“In many ways what we are doing is quite simple. We are just trying to do that really well everywhere we do business.”