COVID-19 has moved digitization to the forefront, and property and casualty (P&C) insurance is no exception. Insurers are looking to protect employees, answer policyholder demands for improved payment experiences, and reduce costs. To do so, they are turning to push-to-card solutions as a way to offer a new level of flexibility and speed to insurance payouts.

To learn more about the P&C space and why the time for digital transformation is now, PaymentsJournal sat down with Silvana Hernandez, SVP of Mastercard Send, North America at Mastercard and Sarah Grotta, Director of Debit and Alternative Products Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group.

Register for the upcoming webinar, Transforming Property & Casualty (P&C) Insurance Claims, for a more in-depth discussion.

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Debit push payments are gaining traction for insurance payments   

Faster payments in the market are gaining traction in the U.S. across a slew of industries. The markets seeing the most success are those that have benefits for multiple players during the payments experience.

“One of the most successful use cases that we’re starting to see are insurance payments,” noted Grotta. Insurance companies still largely rely on checks, but there is now traction toward debit push payments. Push payments are a significant improvement for both insurance companies themselves and their clients.

Grotta attributed insurers’ move to debit push payments to four key reasons:   

* They provide a better customer experience.* They can be dispersed to a broader range of consumers.* They offer cost savings over non-digital payment forms.* They enable a quicker resolution of insurance claims.  

In the COVID-19 era, consumers want peace of mind…

Consumers have had to rethink their behavior across nearly every aspect of their lives. “The pandemic has impacted the way we work, the way we dine, the way we go to school, the way we go to the doctor, and the way we interact,” said Hernandez.

“When it comes to payments, consumers have had to really quickly move to methods of paying and being paid that make them feel safe and allow them to observe social distancing and shelter-in-place measures,” she added. What people want more than anything is peace of mind during these unprecedented times.