Continuing its pioneering path in Japan, SBI-Axa has become the
country’s first life insurer to introduce an automated underwriting
system to support its new business process. The move adds another
first for SBI-Axa which in April 2008 was launched as Japan’s first
direct-to-consumer life insurer focused primarily on the internet
marketing channel.
For the application SBI-Axa selected Ireland-based insurance
technology vendor Allfinanz’s Underwriting Rules Engine (URE) based
on a rules set developed by Munich Re which acquired Allfinanz in
November 2007. Implementation of Allfinanz’s URE system commenced
in January 2009 and took eight months to complete.
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SBI-Axa noted that the URE uses “drill-down questions” to obtain
more comprehensive disclosure data concerning insurance
applications. “By introducing this system, we are now able to
underwrite more precisely and accept more applications” Toshiaki
Suzuki, SBI-Axa’s executive officer and general manager customer
services said in a release.
Expanding on the solution Patrick Sallin, GM of Munich Re Japan
Services’ Life Department, commented: “The system’s underwriting
rule set was developed by Munich Re and has been fully customised
for the Japanese market by Munich Re’s Life Department in
Tokyo.
He continued that the rules have been adapted to local Japanese
practice and language and tailored to SBI-Axa’s specific risk
acceptance philosophy. “The rules cover hundreds of impairments and
thousands of different underwriting scenarios to increase the
ability of decision making at point-of-sale and therefore the
acceptance rate,” said Sallin.
Other Allfinanz customers include HSBC, Standard Life, Prudential,
The Hartford, MetLife, Liverpool Victoria and Bank of
Ireland.
SBI-Axa’s shareholders are Japanese financial services company SBI
Group (55 percent stake), French insurer Axa’s Japanese unit (40
percent) and Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank (5
percent).
