WO2025110918A1

WO2025110918A1 - Computer program product for an insurance application

Info

Publication number: WO2025110918A1
Application number: PCT/SG2023/050774
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ee Ling KHOO; Zhi Yong PECK; Chen Aaron LI
Original assignee: Income Insurance Ltd
Current assignee: Income Insurance Ltd
Priority date: 2023-11-21
Filing date: 2023-11-21
Publication date: 2025-05-30
Anticipated expiration: 2026-05-21

Abstract

A computer program product for an insurance application, the computer program product comprising: computer code for enabling communication between the insurance application and an insurer core system and for enabling communication between the insurance application and a partner software, wherein the insurance application performs functions beyond those available on the insurer core system when instructions are received from the partner software; computer code for providing a user interface configured for inputting personal identification information (PII) of a new customer when the customer seeks to purchase an insurance product that is provided through the insurance application; computer code for transmitting the PII of the customer to the insurer core system for enrolment of the customer; computer code for receiving enrolment status of the customer from the insurer core system; and computer code for anonymizing the PII of the customer to create a delegate identifier of the customer and for transmitting the enrolment status of the customer and the delegate identifier of the customer to the partner software.

Description

COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR AN INSURANCE APPLICATION

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to a computer program product for an insurance application.

Background

[0002] In the insurance domain, integrating an insurer’s core system with a partner software and with an insurance application beyond that of the insurer core system is a complex and difficult task because the technology and interfaces of the insurer core system and those of the partner software and the insurance application are different. Consequently, the time-to- market for digital insurance products is undesirably high, while security and compliance are issues of concern in highly regulated markets.

[0003] It is thus desirable to be able to connect insurer core systems with partner software and insurance applications in a way that reduces the time-to-market for digital insurance products while meeting security and compliance requirements.

Summary

[0004] According to a first aspect, there is provided a computer program product for an insurance application, the computer program product comprising: computer code for enabling communication between the insurance application and an insurer core system and for enabling communication between the insurance application and a partner software, wherein the insurance application performs functions beyond those available on the insurer core system when instructions are received from the partner software; computer code for providing a user interface configured for inputting personal identification information (PII) of a new customer when the customer seeks to purchase an insurance product that is provided through the insurance application; computer code for transmitting the PII of the customer to the insurer core system for enrolment of the customer; computer code for receiving enrolment status of the customer from the insurer core system; and computer code for anonymizing the PII of the customer to create a delegate identifier of the customer and for transmitting the enrolment status of the customer and the delegate identifier of the customer to the partner software.

[0005] The insurance application may be wrapped in the computer program product.

[0006] The computer program product may further comprise computer code for: triggering the insurance application to calculate a premium value of the insurance product when the computer program product receives from the partner software a premium enquiry from the customer for the insurance product, and transmitting the calculated premium value from the insurance application to the partner software.

[0007] The computer program product may further comprise computer code for requesting the insurer core system to issue a policy for the insurance product to the customer upon receiving a payment confirmation from the partner software.

[0008] The computer program product may further comprise computer code for: receiving an issued policy for the insurance product from the insurer core system, and transmitting the issued policy to the partner software.

[0009] The computer program product may further comprise computer code for purging PII of a customer from the computer program product upon receiving enrolment status of the customer confirming that enrolment of the customer has been completed.

[0010] The computer program product may further comprise computer code for: taking a photograph of a government-issued identification document of the customer that includes a photograph of the customer using a camera provided on a device in which the computer program product is provided, and performing optical character recognition on the government- issued identification document to extract the PII contained in the government-issued identification document, and populating a customer enrolment form provided on the user interface with the extracted PII.

[0011] The computer program product may further comprise computer code for: taking a photograph of the customer during the inputting of the PII of the customer using the camera provided on the device, and generating a similarity score from comparing the photograph taken of the customer with a photograph provided on the government-issued identification document.

[0012] The computer program product may further comprise computer code for receiving from the partner software an acknowledgement of receipt of the enrolment status of the customer.

[0013] The computer program product may further comprise computer code for showing the enrolment status of the customer on the user interface.

[0014] The computer program product may further comprise computer code for integrating the computer program product with a trigger signal network.

[0015] The computer program product may further comprise computer code for integrating the computer program product with a payment gateway.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0016] Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are hereinafter further described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a customer enrolment journey using an exemplary embodiment of computer program product.

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a payment trigger journey using the same computer program product that is used in the customer enrolment journey of FIG. 1.

Detailed Description

[0017] Exemplary embodiments of computer program product 10 for an insurance application 20 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 in which the same reference numerals are used across the figures to refer to the same or similar parts.

[0018] The present application discloses a computer program product 10 for an insurance application 20 that performs functions beyond those available on an insurer core system 30. The computer program product 10 comprises computer code for enabling communication between the insurance application 20 and the insurer core system 30, and also for enabling communication between the insurance application 20 and a partner software 40. The computer program product 10 thus functions as a middleware connection hub that integrates the insurance application 20 the insurer core system 30 as well as the partner software 40. The insurance application 20 perform functions beyond those available on the insurer core system 30 when instructions are received from the partner software 40. The computer program product 10 may be provided as a mobile application that is installed in a computing device such as a smartphone, a computer or a tablet. The computer program product 10 may alternatively or additionally be provided as a web application that is accessed through an internet browser that is installed in the computing device. Computer codes provided in the computer program product 10 may be provided as APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) or call APIs configured to perform various functions as will be described in detail below.

[0019] In an exemplary embodiment, the insurance application 20 may be a mobile application or a web application that provides stackable micro insurance products, wherein bite-sized policies that are issued to customers may be stacked up to form a master policy covering different aspects. Notably, such an insurance application 20 may not actually be supported by the insurer core system 30. However, the computer code that enables communication between the insurer core system 30 and the insurance application 20 may comprise a set of APIs over HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) that standardizes the integration between the insurance application 20 and the insurer core system 30.

[0020] Besides stackable micro insurance, the insurance application 20 may alternatively comprise a direct-to-client general insurance product. It can thus be appreciated that the computer program product 10 is highly configurable for enabling both stackable micro insurance and direct-to-client insurance product capabilities on regular insurer core systems 30.

[0021] For onboarding insurance customers 90 to the insurer core system 30, the computer program product 10 comprises computer code for providing a user interface configured for inputting personal identification information (PII) of a new customer 90 when the customer 90 seeks to purchase an insurance policy that is provided through the insurance application 20. This may include displaying a user interface on a screen of the computing device wherein the user interface is configured for inputting personal identification information (PII) of customers 90. The PII may be input by a customer 90 manually keying in the PII through the user interface. Alternatively, the PII may be retrieved from the partner software 40 from integration of the computer program product 10 with the partner software 40 that already has the PII stored therewith. For example, the partner software 40 may comprise a mobile banking app 40 that belongs to a bank, such that integration of the computer program product 10 with the mobile banking app 40 allows the PII to be pulled from the bank’s customer database. The retrieved PII may then be used to populate a customer enrolment form provided on the user interface. Additionally, the computer program product 10 may comprise computer code for taking a photograph of a government-issued identification document of the customer 90 using a camera provided on the computing device and performing optical character recognition on the government-issued identification document to extract the PII contained in the government- issued identification document, followed by populating the customer enrolment form provided on the user interface with the extracted PII.

[0022] For greater security, the computer program product 10 may also comprise computer code for taking a photograph of the customer 90 using the camera provided on the computing device. This may be performed during the inputting of the PII of the customer 90, for example. Further computer code may be included in the computer program product 10 for comparing the taken photograph of the customer 90 with a photograph that is provided on the government-issued identification document (of which a photograph has already been taken using the same camera provided on the computing device). The computer program product 10 preferably further comprises computer code for generating a similarity score between the photograph taken of the customer and the photograph provided on the government-issued identification document by comparing the two photographs. If the similarity score meets a required threshold, a match can be considered made. Depending on security requirements, a match may be required in order for the customer 90 to be able to proceed with making transactions with the insurer.

[0023] As shown in FIG. 1, the computer program product 10 further comprises computer code for transmitting PII of the customer 90 to the insurer core system 30 for enrolment of the customer 90 and also for subsequently receiving enrolment status of the customer 90 from the insurer core system 30. The computer program product 10 preferably also includes computer code for transmitting the received enrolment status back to the computing device for display on the user interface, in order to show the customer 90 whether enrolment is successful or not.

[0024] Importantly, the computer program product 10 comprises computer code for anonymizing the PII of the customer 90 to create a delegate identifier of the customer. In an exemplary embodiment, anonymizing the PII may comprise encrypting basic information (such as the customer’s date of birth, country code, government-issued identity document type and number, for example) using an encryption algorithm such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256 followed by hashing the encrypted basic information using a hash function such as the MD5 message-digest algorithm to produce a 128-bit hash value that is unique to each customer 90. The resulting hash value can then always be used as the delegate identifier of the customer 90 in place of the PII of the customer 90. The purpose of anonymizing the PII of the customer 90 is to minimize transmission of the PII during data exchanges in order to reduce the chances of data leaks involving the PII, while still allowing each customer 90 to be uniquely identified to the partner software 40 for performing transactions for that customer 90. In this way, customer confidentiality can be better protected. Accordingly, the computer program product 10 further comprises computer code for transmitting the delegate identifier together with the received enrolment status to the partner software 40 in order to inform the partner software 40 whether enrolment of the customer 90 is successful or not.

[0025] The computer program product 10 may also comprise computer code for receiving from the partner software 40 an acknowledgement of receipt of the enrolment status of the customer 90, as well as computer code for showing the enrolment status of the customer 90 on the user interface.

[0026] In a preferred embodiment, the computer program product 10 comprises computer code for purging the PII of the customer 90 from the computer program product 10 once the computer program product 10 receives confirmation from the insurer core system 30 that enrolment of the customer 90 has been completed. There is no need for the computer program product 10 to store the PII of enrolled customers as each enrolled customer can be uniquely identified using the delegate identifier of the customer that does not show the confidential PII of the customer. In this way, the computer program product 10 functions as a pass-through solution as customer PII is passed through the computer program product 10 from the customer 90 to the insurer core system 30 without being stored in the computer program product 10 itself. Subsequent transactions and updates for enrolled customers 90 can be based on using only the delegate identifier to uniquely identify each customer 90 without requiring PII of enrolled customers to be input again.

[0027] Preferably, as shown in FIG. 2, the computer program product 10 further comprises computer code for triggering the insurance application 20 to calculate a premium value of the insurance product when the computer program product 10 receives from the partner software 40 a premium enquiry from the customer for the insurance product. This may occur when the customer 90 starts a transaction with the partner software 40 with the intention of purchasing the insurance product, for example. The computer program product 10 may accordingly also comprise computer code for transmitting the calculated premium value from the insurance application 20 to the partner software 40.

[0028] The partner software 40 is expected to provide the premium value together with information about the insurance product to the customer 90 who can then decide whether to proceed with the policy purchase or not. If the customer 90 decides to proceed with the transaction and makes a premium payment through the partner software 40, the payment confirmation may be sent from the partner software 40 to the computer program product 10. The computer program product 10 preferably further comprises computer code to send a request to the insurer core system 30 to issue a policy for the insurance product for the customer 90 when the computer program product 10 receives the payment confirmation from the partner software 40. The computer program product 10 preferably also comprises computer code for receiving an issued policy from the insurer core system 30 and transmitting the issued policy to the partner software 40. The partner software 40 may then forward the issued policy to the customer 90.

[0029] Preferably, the computer program product 10 comprises computer code for integrating the computer program product 10 with a trigger signal network 50 and also computer code for integrating the computer program product 10 with a payment gateway 60, as shown in FIG. 2. The trigger signal network 50 may comprise any networked signal source from which a signal can be received by the computer program product 10 that triggers the computer program product 10 to generate a payment prompt for premium payment by the customer 90 via the payment gateway 60 if the customer 90 wishes to purchase an associated micro insurance policy provided in the insurance application 20. The payment prompt may include stored information of a payment method that has been preset by the customer 90. For example, the computer program product 10 may be preset to generate the payment prompt allowing payment by a particular credit card for a specific customer 90 whenever that customer 90 makes a transaction using a specific networked card. In this example, the network of the specific networked card serves as the trigger signal network 50, and making the transaction using the specific networked card serves as the signal that is received by the computer program product 10 that triggers generation of the payment prompt. Upon receiving the payment prompt, the customer 90 may make payment via the payment gateway 60 using the particular credit card. In another example, the trigger signal network 50 may comprise a health tracking network with which the customer 90 is enrolled and with which the computer program product 10 is integrated. The signal that triggers generation of the payment prompt in this example may be preset to be an achievement of a predetermined health goal of the customer 90, such as walking a specific number of steps in a day. It can thus be appreciated that the trigger signal network 50 and the payment gateway 60 need not be a same network and the specific networked card need not be the same as the particular credit card. Instead, the trigger signal network 50 may be any conceivable network with which the computer program product 10 can be integrated for receiving predetermined specific signals that will trigger the computer program product 10 to generate the payment prompt.

[0030] In some embodiments, the insurance application 20 may be wrapped in the computer program product 10. In this way, best practices in micro insurance may be provided in a secure and compliant way, while eliminating any need for the insurer core system 30 to be upgraded to support stackable insurance products as the insurance product configuration, construct, premium calculation, stacking algorithms, and trigger interfaces all reside in the computer program product 10.

[0031] While there has been described in the foregoing description exemplary embodiments of the present invention, it will be understood by those skilled in the technology concerned that many variations in details of design, construction and/or operation may be made without departing from the present invention. It will be appreciated that many further alterations, modifications and permutations of various aspects of the described embodiments are possible that fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. For example, while the computer program product has been described as functioning as middleware thus having a middleware design, the computer program product may alternatively be built as plug-ins to the insurer core system 30 to enable stackable micro insurances.

[0032] Throughout this specification and the claims which follow, unless the context requires otherwise, the word “comprise”, and variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers or steps but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers. The reference in this specification to any prior publication (or information derived from it), or to any matter which is known, is not, and should not be taken as an acknowledgment or admission or any form of suggestion that that prior publication (or information derived from it) or known matter forms part of the common general knowledge in the field of endeavour to which this specification relates.

Claims

1. A computer program product for an insurance application, the computer program product comprising: computer code for enabling communication between the insurance application and an insurer core system and for enabling communication between the insurance application and a partner software, wherein the insurance application performs functions beyond those available on the insurer core system when instructions are received from the partner software; computer code for providing a user interface configured for inputting personal identification information (PII) of a new customer when the customer seeks to purchase an insurance product that is provided through the insurance application; computer code for transmitting the PII of the customer to the insurer core system for enrolment of the customer; computer code for receiving enrolment status of the customer from the insurer core system; and computer code for anonymizing the PII of the customer to create a delegate identifier of the customer and for transmitting the enrolment status of the customer and the delegate identifier of the customer to the partner software.

2. The computer program product according to claim 1, wherein the insurance application is wrapped in the computer program product.

3. The computer program product according to claim 1 or claim 2, further comprising computer code for: triggering the insurance application to calculate a premium value of the insurance product when the computer program product receives from the partner software a premium enquiry from the customer for the insurance product, and transmitting the calculated premium value from the insurance application to the partner software.

4. The computer program product according to claim 4, further comprising computer code for requesting the insurer core system to issue a policy for the insurance product to the customer upon receiving a payment confirmation from the partner software.

5. The computer program product according to claim 4, further comprising computer code for: receiving an issued policy for the insurance product from the insurer core system, and transmitting the issued policy to the partner software.

6. The computer program product according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising computer code for purging PII of a customer from the computer program product upon receiving enrolment status of the customer confirming that enrolment of the customer has been completed.

7. The computer program product according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising computer code for: taking a photograph of a government-issued identification document of the customer that includes a photograph of the customer using a camera provided on a device in which the computer program product is provided, and performing optical character recognition on the government-issued identification document to extract the PII contained in the government-issued identification document, and populating a customer enrolment form provided on the user interface with the extracted PII.

8. The computer program product according to claim 7, further comprising computer code for: taking a photograph of the customer during the inputting of the PII of the customer using the camera provided on the device, and generating a similarity score from comparing the photograph taken of the customer with a photograph provided on the government- issued identification document.

9. The computer program product according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising computer code for receiving from the partner software an acknowledgement of receipt of the enrolment status of the customer.

10. The computer program product according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising computer code for showing the enrolment status of the customer on the user interface.

11. The computer program product according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising computer code for integrating the computer program product with a trigger signal network.

12. The computer program product according to any one of the preceding claims, further comprising computer code for integrating the computer program product with a payment gateway.