2019 is just around the corner and is likely to bring in a slew of new trends, technologies, and resources for the financial and insurance industries. In 2018, cryptocurrency, digital banking, artificial intelligence, and many other innovations shaped these industries. At Fintech Today, we cover stories such as these and will be taking a look back at the topics that interested our readers. From data-driven insurance and monetizing data to underwriting and virtual assistants, these are the most popular articles on Fintech Today and the top trends in 2018.
Revolutionizing Car Insurance Through Data – A Q&A with Arity
Arity, a startup from Allstate, launched in November of 2016 and is projected to revolutionize the car insurance industry. Leveraging data and information from Allstate’s records and pairing it with telematics solutions, Arity offers customers a new kind of auto insurance – without risk-based pricing. Traditionally, demographic information is used to create the price of an insurance policy, but it isn’t always accurate.
Arity uses the data they have to assess risk-based pricing and outdated insurance tactics. We spoke with Katie DeGraaf, the Director of Product – Insurance Solutions for Arity, who is responsible for developing and overseeing the product strategy and roadmap for Arity’s Insurance Solutions segment.
Read more here.
Monetizing Data: Follow the Yellow Brick Road
Once Dorothy and her colleagues made the journey to OZ, they quickly found out that there was no there, there (every now and then, one must throw in some Gertrude Stein). The Wizard simply told her what she really should have known all along. That classic is about self-reliance, and the ability to differentiate, understanding the real value of what is already there–and the real range of possibilities. Dorothy and her companions just had to figure out how to reframe their own perceived shortcomings and recast them as strengths to achieve real transformation.
Firms can undergo the same kind of journey, only to find out that there is indeed no “magic” to solving data monetization challenges. While the tools have vastly improved, and the power of BI buttressed by AI and Machine Learning has helped greatly with incorporating challenges like unstructured and disparate data (internal and external), that Yellow Brick Road journey still requires cultural and operational steps including empowerment of associated teams. There is not a lot of room for autocracy in achieving the best results. Foundational elements work best, and collaboration is a must. But ultimately, is it worth this kind of upheaval?
Read more from Mark Katz here.
Insurance Companies Look for Competitive Edge Turn to Intelligent Underwriting
As the insurance marketplace becomes more competitive, insurers are turning to intelligent underwriting. According to Mike Hofert, Managing Director of Insurance Solutions at Pitney Bowes, intelligent underwriting tools have enabled insurance companies to combine high-quality data, analytics, intelligence, and insight into a unified dashboard that can provide a snapshot of risk exposure.
“By putting data to work an insurer can improve the overall quality of their underwriting efforts by identifying key exposures that might otherwise have gone unnoticed but that need to be addressed and factored into pricing,” said Hofert. “Underwriters have traditionally spent a lot of time gathering data about environmental hazards in addition to information about a property’s value, structure, and issues to do with proximity to other neighborhood features or hazards,” he said.
Read more here.
How Master Data Management, Alexa, And Blockchain Are Transforming Banks
Throughout the year, we’ve heard many stories of how virtual assistants, cryptocurrency, and artificial intelligence are impacting the financial sector. In the beginning of 2018, USAA introduced Alexa into their financial transactions, allowing customers to speak to the assistant to complete actions. Data management was also a hot topic at the MDM and Data Governance Summit in San Francisco where Pitney Bowes was named the leader in master data management solutions.
Bank of America patented serval uses for blockchain and continued to innovate with digital banking adoptions. In 2019, we can expect to see increased use of virtual assistants like Alexa for banking, continued focus on data management with cybersecurity becoming a pressing issue, and blockchain for use in a variety of industries.
Read more here.
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