Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance named 2018 Global Innovator.

The judges of this year’s Efma-Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards have chosen Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance as the 2018 Global Innovator. Last year, the Japanese carrier was the runner-up for the industry’s premier award. The company won the top accolade this year in recognition for several highly innovative products it brought to market. They include the “Connected Safety Drive Support and Rescue System”, a connected service for auto insurance customers as well as “Insurance Hero Marine”, a smartphone app that uses cartoon characters to teach children about insurance. Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance also launched a range of innovative insurance products designed to meet new consumer requirements. It includes work-from-home insurance as well as policies that recognize same-sex partners as spouses.

Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance’s success was announced at the Efma-Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards ceremony in Paris last week. The awards showcase technology innovation from across the global insurance industry. This year, they attracted 320 submissions from 237 organizations in 45 countries. An integrated digital sales process for home insurance, developed by KBC Verzekeringen of Belgium, was voted the most disruptive product or service. The KBC digital service enables customers to quickly price and buy home cover by answering just three questions – address, type of home, size of property. Launched in 2017 on KBC’s website as well as its KBC Touch and KBC Mobile app platforms, the service dramatically reduces the complexity of evaluating properties, simplifies the selection of appropriate cover and accelerates sales processes. It’s aimed at the fast-growing millennial market.

The runner-up in the disruptive product or service category was the Global Education Protector developed by South African financial services group Discovery. This life insurance product provides Discovery customers with indemnity to cover the cost of educating their children. It not only helps policyholders address the fast-rising cost of education of South Africa. The product also encourages policyholders to improve their health and wellbeing. The Global Education Protector is linked to Discovery’s Vitality wellness program and the credits policyholders earn for improving their health can contribute towards their children’s education costs.

GiveDataBack consolidates insurance data drawn from Germany, Belgium, Spain, UK, Italy, Switzerland and France.

The GiveDataBack facility, developed by AXA in France, earned third place in the Efma-Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards’ disruptive product or service category. This digital portal provides consumers with access to a large portion of AXA’s claims and policy data so that they can determine their risk of water damage and theft. GiveDataBack consolidates insurance data drawn from Germany, Belgium, Spain, UK, Italy, Switzerland and France. By entering an address on the GiveDataBack website, consumers can find out the probability of theft or water damage at that location. They can also discover the likely frequency of such events, the average cost of these occurrences and the months in which they are most likely to happen. The website also recommends how best to reduce risk exposure and suggests how to limit the impact of claims.

Here are the other winners in the Efma-Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards:

Global Innovator – First: Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, Japan; Second: Allianz, France; Third: USAA, USA.
Artificial Intelligence – First: AXA Winterthur, Switzerland (for SIRI-Bution); Second: TAL, Australia (WunderWriter); Third: MetLife, USA (Cogito).
Claims Management – First: Bank Millennium, Poland (Travel Assistance); Second: Nordea, Norway (Disability Claims); Third: Etiqa Insurance, Singapore (Claims Processing and Payment).
Connected Insurance and Ecosystems – First: AXA Winterthur, Switzerland (FlexCash); Second: Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, Japan (Connected Safety Drive Support and Rescue System); Third: Helvetia Insurance, Switzerland (Kevin).
Customer Experience and Engagement – First: PZU, Poland (Speech And Language Translator); Second: AXA, Philippines (MyAXA Café); Third: The Co-operators, Canada (HomeToBe).
Underwriting – First: Victor, USA (Alternus); Second: Discovery, South Africa (Managed Care Integrator); Third: Manulife, Canada (Valuation Systems Transformation).
Insurtech – First: Nexar, Israel (Automated Accident Reconstruction); Second: Gavin, Netherlands (Gavin); Third: Monuma, France (Blockchain Patromonia).

To find out about these innovations or to learn more about the Efma–Accenture Innovation in Insurance Awards visit https://www.efma.com/innovationininsurance/ or follow the conversation on Twitter at #InsAwards18.