Insurers Leverage New Technologies and Reinvent Business Models to Reach Underserved Consumers, Report Finds

The Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion (CFI) and the Institute of International Finance (IIF), with the support of MetLife Foundation, today released a new report detailing the factors spurring inclusive insurance around the world. It reveals how both traditional and new insurers are breaking open new markets and reaching underserved customers through the use of innovative technologies, business models, product design, and partnerships, enabled by effective regulatory environments.

The report, "Inclusive Insurance: Closing the Protection Gap for Emerging Customers" is based on extensive interviews with commercial insurers and insurance experts who are making inclusive insurance work as a successful business model. With insights from players at the front lines, the report identifies the main challenges of providing insurance to lower income populations, as well as the solutions companies are using to overcome them. For example, companies are:

• Using new distribution channels and aggregators – from telcos to farmer cooperatives – to identify and connect with low-income customers;
• Implementing new business models and products to provide and administer the risk mitigation solutions that low-income customers need;
• Deploying "insurtech" innovations and digital channels to connect with, and service, low-income customers.