Paymentus Debuts Instant Insurance Claim Disbursement Accelerator

Paymentus has introduced a tool to help insurers offer instant digital disbursements.

The Paymentus Disbursements Accelerator, announced Tuesday (Oct. 15), has been added to the Guidewire ClaimCenter, and is designed to help insurers rapidly weave instant digital disbursement capabilities into their claims management processes.

“For more than a decade, some of the largest insurance providers have relied on our billing, payments and disbursements solutions to modernize the customer experience. Now we are completing the circuit for Guidewire clients,” Jerry Portocalis, chief commercial officer at Paymentus, said in a news release.

“Digitizing the payout experience will not only boost customer satisfaction, but also provide insurers with a new level of insight and functionality to improve the efficiency, security, and integrity of their back-office operations.”

The accelerator, the release said, lets policyholders get payouts in the way they wish including payments to digital wallets, credit or debit cards, ACH transfers or via check. Insurers can get a real-time view of payout while remaining PCI-compliant, and improve back-office operations and reporting, and lower their cost-to-serve.

“Meeting growing digital expectations has become a key factor in customer satisfaction and retention for insurers,” the company said. “While technology spending by property and casualty insurers has grown by 36% over the past decade, 30% of customers remain unsatisfied with insurers’ digital channels according to recent studies.”

And as PYMNTS noted in a report last week, this month’s devastating hurricanes underscore the need for instant disbursements.

Consumers receive a wide range of disbursements. Among them are earnings and income payments, Social Security payments, tax refunds, insurance claim payments and loan proceeds. In fact, a little more than half of consumers received at least one non-government disbursement in the prior 12 months as of July of this year, a share that is up from 48% who said the same in January.

At the same time, instant payments are a popular option for getting many types of disbursements. The share of disbursements most often received through instant payments is now at a record high of 37%, which marks a 23% increase from September of last year.

“The growing number of disbursements issued via instant methods suggests that consumers need to receive their funds urgently,” PYMNTS wrote. “When they need the funds urgently, consumers will likely choose instant payment options if available.”

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