Adoption of Virtual Banks and Insurers

Adoption of Virtual Banks and Insurers 70 Survey Findings Product offerings of virtual insurers Virtual insurers’ products have to comply with IA’s licensing requirements. Licensed life insurers, which include Bowtie and ZA Insure, can only offer life and medical insurance products. Avo and OneDegree, as licensed general insurers, can also offer human and pet medical, travel, and other types of insurance. To differentiate themselves from incumbents, virtual insurers modify standard products and/or create new ones to appeal to the market. As small and agile entities, their products could be created and released at a faster pace than traditional insurers. These new products are subject to the IA’s approval as well. The question is, which products and services should virtual insurers focus on? We asked respondents to choose at most three out of the eight products presented in Exhibit 38. The highest percentage of respondents (29.4%) felt that virtual insurers should focus on travel insurance, followed by home insurance (17.5%), and health and medical insurance (16.4%). The reason for the popularity of travel insurance among respondents could be due to the small transaction amount involved. Travel insurance is also a one-time purchase, which can be conducted easily on the virtual insurers’ platforms. The results for the second to fifth most popular choices are quite close and could serve as a good reference for virtual insurers. Exhibit 38 Product offerings of virtual insurers