Polaris partners with commercial lines software provider

Insurer and broker-owned Polaris has partnered with commercial lines software provider Cytora to use real-time data to influence ratings decisions on property and commercial risks.

Data sourced from Cytora’s application programming interface (API) platform will be used within Polaris’s ProductWriter tool; an insurance product definition service and rating engine that is used by more than two-thirds of the UK general insurance market to construct rating tables.

The aim of the partnership is to enable insurers or MGAs using ProductWriter to access better informed ratings decisions on property and commercial risks in real-time, before issuing quotes to clients.

Data decisions

Cytora is best known for aiding insurers in underwriting commercial insurance, providing data, such as property construction data and company financials, to ensure a more accurate view of risk.

This produces a risk score for underwriters, ranging from an A grade to an F grade, that can be used in conjunction with ProductWriter to influence ratings in real-time.

Richard Hartley, chief executive at Cytora, said: “Some of the world’s leading insurers are already benefitting from Cytora’s platform to enrich and speed up their underwriting and pricing decisions.

“Working with Polaris makes it easy for insurers and MGAs to access our insights from an already familiar platform. We are really pleased to see an industry-owned body committed to making it easier for insurtechs and existing market participants to work together and look forward to seeing the partnership grow.”

Rating results

Polaris’s managing director Vivek Banga added: “Our core remit is to develop technology that benefits the whole industry. Creating an interface between ProductWriter and Cytora makes it easier for insurers to access emerging innovation in commercial lines risk assessment while continuing to use their existing technology for the bulk of their rating decisions.

“Insurance has always been a data-heavy industry and data enrichment technologies have been around for a few years. It’s what you do with the data that counts.

“We are committed to making it easier for ProductWriter customers to quickly access emerging technologies in better risk selection so that they can focus on the insights that such technologies can provide to support better and faster underwriting decisions”