Insurance industry is starting to expand its business towards InsureTech, which is combination of insurance industry with ITs such as AI (Artificial Intelligence) and blockchain, as it faces Industry 4.0. Meanwhile, FinTech companies are emerging as control towers as they introduce their ITs to insurance companies.
According to insurance industry, South Korean insurance companies are starting to apply new ITs to their services through MOUs (Memorandum of Understanding) with FinTech companies.
First of all, Kyobo Life Insurance has introduced Insurance Automatic Claim System with an InsureTech company called d.LEMON. d.LEMON is currently operating ‘LEMON Clip’ that manages one’s insurance and ‘LEMON Bridge’ application that can remodel one’s insurance through one’s planner. LEMON Bridge was introduced by Kyobo Life Insurance and ING Life Insurance earlier this year through their actual businesses.
Not only can a person check 40 private companies (life insurance and indemnity insurance) through LEMON Clip, but he or she can also check insurance from co-ops such as post offices, Korean Federation of Community Credit Cooperatives, credit unions, and National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives. Some of items that a person can check are insurance guarantee breakdown, duration, insurance payment, refund cancellation, and payment period. Because LEMON Clip’s search engine is based on ‘Client method’ and every inquiry occurs through a Smartphone, it is impossible for private information such as certificate and resident registration number to be stolen.
KB Insurance has started ‘Smart Scraping Service’ through FLY HIGH, which is a company trained by ‘KB Innovation Hub’ managed by KB Financial Group.
FLY HIGH that provides information security applied services is currently supplying a service that checks authenticity of one’s ID card and a service that makes mobile electronic civil complaints to be issued and distributed to KB Financial Group. Scraping technologies owned by KB Financial Group and FLY HIGH are technologies that extract and process necessary data from each site and they can automatically collect one’s information from financial companies and public organizations such as National Tax Service and National Health Insurance Service.
Hanwha General Insurance has applied security authentication solution of a security solution developer called Ssenstone that has moved into DreamPlus 63 to its internal system. Its solution allows one to select and use authentication method such as biometrics that he or she wants and it is currently used by Hanwha General Insurance for its internal users.
Besides these insurance companies, DB Insurance is working with Daily Financial Group, where d.LEMON belongs, to develop new products and services and to innovate process of insurance duties.
Industries are expecting that FinTech companies’ ITs will play major roles in insurance services. In the past, insurance companies either sold minor businesses or acquired major businesses to optimize their business portfolios. However, insurance companies are starting to make partnership with InsureTech companies to grab upper hands of niche markets.
Actually, a P2P (Peer to Peer) InsureTech company called Lemonade is growing its competitive edge through quick insurance payment through electronic documents and inexpensive and transparent insurance policies.
Staff Reporter Park, Yoonho | yuno@etnews.com