CRIF launches new open banking solutions for insurers to help tailor products, reduce risk and optimise onboarding for customers

• CRIF has launched a new suite of solutions for the insurance sector to enable more personalised services, while reducing costs and speeding up the decision process.

• The services utilise open banking – something the sector has been slow to embrace - to establish customer creditworthiness, ability to pay and suitability for products.

• CRIF has supported the UK insurance industry for 25 years and now holds over 7 million household, 19.9 million motor and 13.5 million personal injury insurance claims.

CRIF has launched its new open banking powered suite of solutions for organisations in the insurance sector.

While the number of consumers and SMEs actively using open banking-powered services in the UK has reached 7 million, this is predominantly in the online banking and personal finance sectors. The insurance industry has by contrast been slower to embrace this innovation to enhance its own services.  

CRIF’s new product suite utilises the company’s existing open banking solutions which helps lenders assess the creditworthiness of customers through its AI-powered categorisation engine, reducing the overall risk for insurance companies by enabling them to make more informed decisions on customers. These capabilities also help insurers determine whether customers can pay for policies monthly (e.g. by direct debit) rather than up front, ensuring that payment methods accurately match affordability, while mitigating the need for insurers to chase missed payments down the line.

The new open banking-powered suite also enables insurers to offer more tailored products and services that meet customer needs as well as streamline claims processing. For example, this could empower insurers to offer tailored motor insurance to an individual who makes monthly payments towards a car lease. It also simplifies the application and onboarding process, saving consumers time when applying for insurance, driving up satisfaction, and ultimately enhancing customer loyalty. 

Sara Costantini, Regional Director for the UK & Ireland at CRIF said: 

“CRIF has been a stalwart in the insurance industry for over two decades. As such we’re well placed to know what businesses across the sector want and need.

“We see open banking as natural progression when it comes to the development of the industry. Open banking technology has the potential to bring many benefits to insurers, not least helping those who embrace these innovations to stay ahead of the curve and offer a better service to customers than their competitors.

“Our open banking solutions empower insurers to harness new data sources and deliver seamless customer experiences, and we do this without compromising on security, compliance or the ability to collect, handle, or process customer data.”

CRIF, as a nominated supplier of the Claims and Underwriting Exchange Register database in the UK, is helping combat fraud in the sector – which has peaked during the cost of living crisis. It’s doing this by undertaking due diligence and sharing data – obtained via open banking - with organisations across the industry to spot prolific fraudsters and identify scams.

The launch builds on CRIF’s expansion of its pan-European open banking-powered consumer credit scoring services to the UK last year, which enhance existing UK services to allow the evaluation of creditworthiness for both consumers and businesses. Today’s announcement helps further its provision of open banking services – including NEOS and Credit Passport®- but for the insurance sector specifically. 

CRIF has been supporting the UK insurance industry – working with over 120 insurance brands - for 25 years and now holds over 7 million households, 19.9 million motor and 13.5 million personal injury insurance claims.