Consumer and business credit information provider CRIF is joining forces with claims management firm Crawford to enable businesses to make faster claims on their insurance, while receiving more accurate payouts.
Through the new partnership, Crawford will leverage open banking technology from CRIF to enable businesses that want to make a claim through Crawford to securely connect their bank account as part of the process.
The move will enable real-time, detailed categorisation and analysis of income, expenditure, and other KPIs, significantly reducing the claims management process by up to 30 per cent.
For many businesses, gathering, analysing and submitting the appropriate evidence and documentation can take hours or even days. After making an insurance claim, businesses can face delays when waiting for an insurance payout. This can lead to a range of challenges, including cash flow problems, operational disruptions and even increased debt.
Agreeing settlements quicker not only enables claims management companies like Crawford to simplify processes, increase efficiencies and lower costs, but for a business claimant, expediting the settlement means the sooner it can return to ‘business as usual’.
“CRIF believes that insurers would benefit from the adoption of new solutions to optimise their customer journey, streamlining claims management and ensuring fast, accurate payouts,” explained Sara Costantini, regional director for the UK and Ireland at CRIF.
“CRIF’s partnership with Crawford leverages open banking to unlock better-informed decisions surrounding payouts. It’s fantastic to be making such an important step forward in the sector, while enabling more insurers to get quick and accurate decisions by streamlining their internal processes.”
Enabling insurance companies to move forward with payouts more quickly also importantly improves customer satisfaction and retention, with data from EY finding that 87 per cent of policyholders say the claims experience impacts their decisions to remain with insurers.
Leveraging open banking
While open banking technology is well-established in the banking sector, it has yet to be fully integrated and utilised by insurers. The partnership between Crawford and CRIF is set to provide a more accurate reflection of the business and its claims, while removing the need to manually sift through data and evidence, saving businesses time and money, and mitigating the risk of mistakes.
Angus Osborne-White, director of forensic accountancy services at Crawford, said: “Managing the process of business interruption claims can be long, complex and time-consuming. Not only does this demand significant internal resources, but crucially, it also holds up businesses from receiving the payouts that they often are desperately in need of.
“The recent adoption of CRIF’s open banking technology is not only significantly streamlining this process but also simplifying it. The partnership is equipping Crawford with the cutting-edge technology required to remain at the forefront of innovation in its sector, while also offering customers an unparalleled experience when it comes to claims management.”
