Everyone keeps introducing Matteo Carbone as an expert in usage-based-insurance (UBI) or pay-as-you-go auto coverage, an assumption that appears to slightly irritate this insurtech influencer.
That’s because usage-based-insurance is neither the most effective nor the most rational insurance practice of the IoT (internet of things) according to Carbone.
“How do people normally define insurance telematics? Usage-based-insurance. They’re defining a technology on a one-use basis,” Carbone said.
“The best practices (around the world) are not delivering value with a price that’s usage-based. They are delivering something that addresses claims management and brings services to the customer.”
Search and compare product listings for Motor Insurance from specialty market providers here
Simply put, insurers that embrace telematics and offer customers a “total package”, rather than just the chance to earn discounts, could steal a march on the market.
“The customers, in any country, are more ready than the insurers, but the fact is you need to make a value proposition that works,” Carbone continued. “In South Africa they have the only telematics product that is not providing discounts to clients. Many times I speak with insurers and say we can do telematics without discounts. But you need to create another way to share that with the client.”
Carbone founded the international Connected Insurance Observatory, an incubator for insurtech innovation, making him a clear forward-thinker for the industry. So when answering what advice he would give to the Ontario provincial government’s auto insurance reform team, Carbone’s tips – that options and openness are key – should carry great weight.
“Let the customer choose,” he said. “Make the players transparent. Impose rules that make auto insurers disclose what they’re doing, don’t allow mis-selling. And then the customer will be free to choose who they prefer.”
Related stories:
Keeping up with cyber criminals
More than half of insurtech funding worldwide is invested in this area, report says
