APIs can act as ‘operational steroids’ for underwriting processes

Application programming interfaces (APIs) can act as “operational steroids” when used for dealing with complex underwriting decisions and policy data.

That was according to Ryan Seager, head of operations at TruStar Underwriting, who said that such technology can help “speed up processes” and add “significant value”.

An API is software that allows two devices or applications to talk to each other, which can allow for quicker processes and higher performance.

During a webinar entitledThe year of the API, Seager noted that APIs were not a new technology, but can be ”often underutilised effectively in underwriting communities”.

“When we look at the continuum of underwriting being art and science, our philosophy – and perhaps the philosophy of many other businesses – is if we can automate the science, the calculation, the quantification of using APIs, then the underwriter can go back to being the artisan that is, in a way, a lost art today.”

He added that API technology ”is the utopian desire to create a very integrated digital ecosystem”.

”We can reduce the number of screen and clicks that an underwriting team, an admin team or a team within a brokerage has to follow to pass data through the system,” Seager said.

“That’s where we see such significant value in our business or in underwriting businesses.

”As market cycles come and go and as we have to be more competitive, there are levers you can pull in pricing and products, but service is the one that stands [out] to most buyers and most brokers.”

’API-first’

Meanwhile, Matt Carter, practice director for speciality markets at Altus Consulting, said that for an organisation to be “API-first”, it was important that it was utilising data and staff.

“The API-first approach is recognising that there’s a connectedness around your business, your proposition and understanding that connections lead the conversation,” he said.

He continued: “Being API-first is understanding that those connections exist and that we are going to utilise them for our own business benefit or potentially for our partners’ benefit.

”Once we have done that, we can wrap it all up and deliver some business value.”