Innovation in insurance
Innovation in insurance
Aronova has been working with trade credit insurers for over 15 years, and are highly experienced in the requirements and subtleties of insurance policy management. Over that time, we have seen a marked shift in the use of trade credit policies. There has been a shift from simple risk transfer to the acquisition of working capital finance programmes across both receivables and supply-chain finance.
With insurers stepping in to provide comfort to investors and taking on the risk in these portfolios, visibility and control are much needed.
CHALLENGES FACING
THE INDUSTRY
The enforcement of operational rigour is of critical importance and traditional methods of reporting and analysis are proving inadequate. Insurers are taking on the risk for this complex and dynamic asset class with its existing and new client portfolios, and have two choices. They can either employ more people to set credit limits and manage day-to-day requirements, or they can use technology to streamline the process, enforce operational control and help mitigate risk.
The manual route carries many risks. Analysis and evaluation can be time-consuming and increasingly difficult, leading to delays issuing the initial indications and increasing the chance of missed opportunities at the outset, not to mention the high cost of headcount.
Even at the start of the policy, the manual daily management of complex, high-volume invoice portfolios can be slow and fraught with operational risk. For example, keeping track of the performance of on-risk portfolios, ensuring that they remain within acceptable parameters, and checking that credit limits remain appropriate is nearly impossible through conventional reporting.
HOW ARONOVA WORKS
Aronova specialises in working with the insurance industry, and has many years of experience helping clients to win more opportunities and manage policies with confidence. We help insurers to grow their capability by employing an approach trusted by many across the industry:
EVALUATE
EVALUATE
Helping our insurance partners to understand the true risk profile of portfolios is a critical first step that can help with. We provide immediate visibility of each portfolio’s performance through a simple initial upload from Excel. The Aronova team can run this against a set of defined policy criteria to aid the initial review.
During this process, we run algorithms that automatically validate the data and identify anomalies for review before matching the file to Dun & Bradstreet. Our strategic partnership with Dun & Bradstreet enables us to match the underlying companies to a DUNS number through a live link into their system. This checks the legal entities and group structures, and to analyse the sector and geographic concentrations.
The analysis means that our insurance partners can make quick go/no-go decisions, and issue early indications with the confidence that the portfolio complies with their criteria.
DELIVER
DELIVER
This early-stage evaluation of the portfolio means that the policy can be structured quickly and effectively, to protect the insurer. In addition, it is in line with the client’s business objectives and ensures that the insurance is competitive.
Once they have decided to progress with the policy, we help set up regular feeds of invoice data directly from the client’s accounting system into our own, daily or at agreed intervals.
This live data feed ensures that the policy structure can be assessed prior to go-live. It can be fine-tuned as necessary, to protect our partners as effectively as possible.
PROTECT
PROTECT
Setting the parameters correctly in the first place is one of the most significant steps in protecting the policy. Throughout the lifetime of the programme, our solution tests every piece of new data the instant it is uploaded, to ensure ongoing compliance. We also run checks that identify anomalies in the programme.
These proprietary algorithms help to identify fraudulent behaviour or changes in the programme profile that could present a risk, trapping them prior to inclusion in the policy and alerting the underwriter to the threats. The system monitors the status of every invoice subsequent to cover and alerts users if any details change, which is nearly impossible to do using traditional reporting methods.
To support the underwriter we track every credit limit, and utilisation of that limit, and are able to automatically request new limits when any threshold is breached.
GROW
GROW
This effective, systematic approach controls the risk attached to the policy and significantly reduces the amount of time and effort spent setting up and managing it. The result is that you can quickly scale up with confidence to grow the policy in the future.
HOW IT ALL WORKS
Pre-funding, corporates periodically need to provide us with a single electronic file of past and current receivables, sourced directly from the corporate’s accounting system. For simplicity and speed, and depending on data volumes, this is usually provided in Excel format.
“Aronova have vastly improved the way we identify new opportunities. We can now see the performance of a potential transaction and its likely funding level within seconds of uploading a file of data.”