ILC ARTICLE

Mastercard urges insurers to update payment methods

12th October 2021

Mastercard used its appearance at ClaimsTech, an I Love Claims event, to urge insurers to focus as much energy on developing methods of payment as they do on other areas of the claims process.

Speaking during a session entitled Disrupting Claims Payments, Ruth Polybank, vice president, partnerships lead insurance, explained that Mastercard has an entire division dedicated entirely to sharing its skills in digital transactions with other industries.

She said it had already enjoyed proven successes in areas such as travel, logistics and smart cities, and there was no reason insurers could not also benefit in the same way.

Ruth said, ‘My job is to bring all our experience and expertise to the insurance sector. I do this in three ways: firstly, by sharing our knowledge in cyber, payments, data, and identity verification; secondly, by taking insurance into the other verticals we work in; and thirdly, talking to the decision-makers of insurance companies and asking where they are going, what’s stopping them get there, and how we can we help in partnership. The three things I hear most from insurers are we want to digitalise, reduce cost, and reach new audiences.’

However, she said that too many don’t apply this focus to payment methods within their organisations, mistakenly believing that claims is the acid test of their business when in fact it is when insurers decide to pay that policyholders care most about.

‘The status quo in insurance at the moment is telling customers when and how they’ll be paid. In no other industry would you get away with that. We hope that by working with insurers we can challenge the status quo.’

As an example, she cited the potential introduction of virtual payment cards, 16-digit codes which are sent to customers enabling them to claim the money attached to the card. Various stipulations can be attached – for example the money can only be claimed after a certain date, the money can only be spent at a certain shop or on a certain item. This, she argued, improves security, transparency and speed.

She said, ‘It exceeds customer expectations because it’s instantaneous, while for insurers it enables them to move away from the old ways of working and make payments a strategic part of the process.’

I Love Claims would like to thank ClaimsTech headline sponsor SightCall, as well partners Google Cloud and Mastercard, gold sponsors CoreLogic, Digilog UK, Entegral, IMS (Insurance Mobility Solutions), Tractable and Verisk, and silver sponsors asTech, Carpe Data, eviid, GT Motive, Service Certainty, and Synergy.