Banks and insurers have a problem: when they work together, it is almost always about one line of business. “When banks deal with insurance, they mostly deal with life insurance,” says Axa Germany boss Alexander Vollert. The conclusion of a household contents or liability policy through a bank is in most cases “so bumpy that it is not fun”.
Two of the largest European providers in the financial sector want to change that. In 2018, Axa teamed up with Bank ING. The integration of the offers is now complete and will be activated for 9.5 million ING customers.
“We have a deeply integrated solution,” says Vollert. ING customers who want to take out insurance in their app or via the website should have it much easier than with other online providers. “We have 80 percent fewer questions than in the direct channel.” Take household effects and liability for example: “Anyone who takes out a contract with a typical direct insurer has to answer over 40 questions,” says Volker Büttner, who heads the division called Digital Bancassurance at Axa. “We have eight.”
The bank automatically fills in the questionnaire with the data it already has, from the place of residence to the account details. “It doesn’t matter whether the customer wants to take out the policy via the website or the app.”
Invoicing of offers, information and notification of claims: everything should be handled by ING. The price-performance ratio is correspondingly good, at least claims Vollert. “In addition, we give you the opportunity to cancel on a daily basis.”
ING customers have been able to take out mortgage lending and loan loss insurance through the site for several months. Axa and ING offer insurance in the areas of household effects, liability, residential buildings and glass. Cyber cover for private individuals is to be added soon.
The documents are in the ING app, as is a list of the policies and possible claims reports. “If the customer adjusts his insurance because of a move, he gets the new policy in his digital ING mailbox,” says Büttner.
By working together, Axa wants to overcome one of the biggest problems of digitization for insurers: Customers do not use the many platforms, apps and websites that insurers offer them. Nobody goes to their insurance platform. The only exception is private health insurance, where customers submit their prescriptions and medical bills through one platform. There is traffic.
Otherwise, the insurers’ opportunities to come into contact with their customers at all are very limited. It’s different with banks: almost all customers go to the banks’ websites on a weekly or even daily basis. Axa wants to use that, it wants to piggyback over the bank to the customer.
Some cooperations work through broker models in which the bank acts as an insurance broker and mediates with many insurers. Axa and ING have opted for a high degree of integration in their systems. From a legal point of view, the bank acts as the insurance agent for Axa. “For many customers, the seamless customer experience is more important than the great variety,” believes Vollert. Car insurance and supplementary health policies are to follow soon.
In the next step, the two sides want to use the data they have about the customers even more intensively. With your consent, payments can be analyzed. The result could be an offer for cheaper insurance if a rival has taken a premium. Or the proposal for building protection if buying a house or apartment is foreseeable.
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