Jirnexu expects digital insurance to contribute up to 30% growth

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KUALA LUMPUR:? Southeast Asian financial technology (fintech) start-up, Jirnexu Sdn Bhd, expected digital insurance to be its significant growth contributor, representing 25 to 30 per cent in total growth, in the coming years.

Jirnexu, which currently operates in Malaysia and Indonesia, owns and operates financial comparison sites ? RinggitPlus in Malaysia and KreditGoGo in Indonesia.

Its Director for Insurance, Lucas Ooi, said the company has witnessed increasing applications of insurance products on RinggitPlus.com, with a 2.6-fold year-on-year growth, adding that 70 per cent of the traffic was by mobile, demonstrating a strong mobile-first consumer mindset.

In October 2017, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) had approved Jirnexu as participant within its fintech regulatory sandbox which allowed participants to introduce innovative fintech services and products.

Commenting on that, he said, the process to apply for the sandbox took around 12 months and had to go through rigorous process, especially for complex products such as life insurance as it required documentation, mock-ups and step-by-step explanations of how consumers were impacted by fintech solution.

The company was approved to compare, sell, process payments, and issue e-policies for insurance products and would be the first company in Malaysia permitted to sell general and life insurance products from multiple providers, and the first to build a dedicated e-commerce marketplace for insurance, he said.

Ooi said after joining the sandbox, the company could now work with stakeholders to build the platform and would soon begin transacting term life and motor insurance directly on its RinggitPlus platform.

“We want to be working with at least 50 per cent of the insurance market by 2019. Of course, this includes life, general and takaful,” he told Bernama.

While Malaysians can already search and compare insurance products on its online platform,  such as for term life, medical cards, car, home and travel insurance, Ooi said, they previously had to complete the transaction with the insurers.

Hence, he said, Jirnexu was building the first dedicated e-commerce marketplace that would empower Malaysians to search and obtain policies in a seamless manner via its RingitPlus.com site and would soon begin with transacting term life and motor insurance products.

It would also continue to work closely with BNM and insurers to offer more products soon, he said.

Meanwhile, as Malaysia's life insurance penetration remained stagnant over the past five years, BNM is now pushing for insurance companies to reach more consumers through digital channels, and in line with that Ooi believed Jirnexu's technology could play a key role in addressing Malaysia's insurance penetration gap.  

He said Jirnexu's insurance e-commerce marketplace would enable consumers to get protected and insured quickly, affordably, and accessibly while with its proprietary data-driven platform, it could also help insurers better understand consumers and innovate products for previously unserved markets.

Moving forward, he said, to strengthen its foothold in the region, the company would continue to invest in its core technology and integrating solutions with clients as much as possible, and hoped to provide a significantly differentiated level of service for financial service institutions and consumers alike. - Bernama