Chief executive Steve White made the announcement during his opening speech at Biba 2018

Biba has announced that it has started work on a solution to allow brokers to find insurtechs a lot easier.

Biba calls it a “dating agency” for brokers and insurtechs, as it will allow them to partner with each other more easily.

Chief executive, Steve White made the announcement during his opening speech at the annual Biba conference in Manchester.

“If you’re a broker looking to embrace insurtech, where do you start?” he said.

White continued: “Simply googling ‘insurtech’ isn’t likely to give you optimal results.

“Similarly, if you’re an insurtech firm looking to collaborate, how do you find these firms, and crucially, the right person within them to speak to?

“That’s where the idea of a dating agency was thought up by our cross-industry innovation group.

“Today, I can announce that we will be launching this service which will bridge the gap between the two communities and further details of how to access this will be available on the Biba website.”

It is being developed in partnership with insurer Covéa, with assistance from Broker Direct.

The idea was born out of the Biba cross-industry Innovation Working Group, which is working on three workstreams to help foster technology-led innovation in the industry:

  • Demystifying InsurTech for incumbents.
  • Helping InsurTechs to become established
  • Developing partnerships and collaboration between incumbents and InsurTech firms.

Andy Thornley, Biba’s head of corporate affairs, said: “This is our first foray into becoming tech-innovators ourselves; it’s important that we practice what we preach and lead by example.

“As well as being an important project for BIBA members, it will give us an idea of what it’s like to learn from iterations to get to a solution that really delivers on what we hope to achieve; building relationships between the insurtech and incumbent communities.”

Simon Cooter, director of high net worth and commercial lines at Covéa said: “We have had our innovation team at Covéa Insurance working on this project, with Iain Gray of Broker Direct, scoping out how it would work and building processes that underpin the service.

“With a prototype ready to demo at Biba 2018, it is a great opportunity to get feedback from the wider insurance community. The output of this work will benefit both insurtech firms and Biba members in helping to embed technology-driven innovation within our industry”

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