Christian Miners

Assurant Intermediary already had a large broker network for selling their own health and protection insurance, but wanted to offer a stronger home insurance option. Reporting directly to the board level, this development created a new aggregator function, which gathered customer information, and requested up to nine quotes from six different insurers.

The insurers had different rules around insured item categories such as specified items, valuables, fine art, and antiques. This required a smart data reformatting module to enable correct quotes in all circumstances.

The development also allowed brokers to purchase policies from any quotes, which meant standardization of documentation across insurers while ensuring regulatory compliance.

The initial requirements came from marketing for a very simple-to-administer loan product with dynamic pricing and underwriting that would let the business change rates and acceptance criteria on the fly without formal code releases. Business analysis work included new-build designs for web screens and the rating engine and building processes around account management and arrears that complied with all the relevant regulations.

The largest home insurer in the UK was concerned about the level of home insurance fraud. The solution assessed every claim against 12 risk factors and flagged up claims seen as risky, which were then referred to expert handlers who could ask more challenging questions. The solution also included a detailed statistical analysis of the risk factors and claim referrals. It allowed the business to tweak the risk factors and points assigned without the need for formal code changes.

The EU legislation had to be interpreted and traced so that the client could demonstrate to the FCA that they remained compliant or risked losing their license to sell mortgages.

As a lead BA, I created a huge traceability document that mapped legislation to regulation, business impacts, changes required, specifications for required amendments to documentation, computer systems, processes, and actuarial calculations.

Despite a much smaller budget and change team than the big high street banks, the project was a success; in that, there were no adverse impacts on customers, and the changes made were considered to be compliant by the regulator.