The world’s largest insurtech platform provider, InsureTech Connect (ITC) hosted ITC Japan 2024 on March 12, 2024, featuring the insurance industry leaders in Japan as guest speakers, including the representatives of SMBC group companies – SMBC Nikko Securities, Sumitomo Mitsui Card, Lifenet Insurance – and their insurtech partners, Techmark Japan and InsureMO.
One of the sessions included in this event was a panel discussion titled “SMBC Group’s Co-Creation in Digital Insurance” where the guest panelists shared their knowledge and insights on the latest trends in the digital insurance market, along with their recent activities to deepen their engagement with insurtech partners.
The session began from introducing Olive, the all-in-one card launched by the SMBC Group as its latest comprehensive financial service offering that is receiving increasingly wide support from its retail customers.
SMBC Group positions this card as an embodiment of one of the key pillars of its retail business strategy, which is to further enhance the quality of its services through collaboration and alliances not only within the SMBC Group but also with powerful external partners.
The session then moved on to sharing information focused on co-creation in digital insurance that included user experiences of customers accessing the insurance portal site to purchase products and services offered from affiliated insurers using the dedicated app installed on their smartphone or tablet which has been developed and supported by partnering vendors.
Kazuya Fujita, Vice President of SMBC Nikko Securities who is in charge of overseeing the global investment and banking operations handled by the financial and public corporation group explained about his team’s achievements in IPO and support activities to connect major corporations with key players in the insurtech/fintech industry that included the hosting of events for reverse pitches by major financial institutions and Fintech Night that was planned as a casual social gathering for the fintech community members to get to know each other better.
Kazuya Fujita, Vice President – SMBC Nikko Securities Inc.
Yoshiki Sato from Sumitomo Mitsui Card who serves as the Group Manager in Operational Business Promotion Department under the Marketing Division highlighted the company’s key activities in asset management and insurance business and its efforts to strengthen the integration of digital and real-life experiences by increasing the lineup of solution proposals and enhancing the functionality of its portal site.
Yoshiki Sato, Group Manager of Operational Business Promotion Department of Marketing Division – Sumitomo Mitsui Card
President and Representative Director of Lifenet Insurance, Ryosuke Mori spoke about the company’s commitment publicly announced in August 2023 to aim at leading the industry in the direction of expanding the market for fully digitalized insurance services which are expected to further increase their market penetration rate going forward by making more products and services available to its customers through the collaboration with the SMBC Group. He also revealed what the intentions were behind developing new insurance products released in December 2023 that have been designed to enable those purchasing them to earn and accumulate V-points.
Ryosuke Mori, President and Representative Director – Lifenet Insurance Company
Kei Ikenishi, President and CEO of Techmark Japan, known as a company developing, operating and providing consulting services on extended warranty programs in this country for over three decades talked about its collaboration with Sumitomo Mitsui Card (SMC) focused on making SMC’s selectable free insurance programs available to its customers and how his company is capitalizing on the know-how and proven track records of the global insurance group it is affiliated with to bolster its competitive edge.
Kei Ikenishi, President and Chief Executive Officer – Techmark Japan
Masaru Kawakami, Representative Director and President of InsureMO K.K. which partners with the SMBC Group to supports the system platform for the digital insurance products and services deployed by its group companies and their affiliates emphasized his company’s contributions to increasing the flexibility of the microservices-based platform, along with the ongoing efforts to improve the quality of the insurance portal in an agile manner.
Masaru Kawakami, Representative Director and President – InsureMO K.K.
The panel discussion turned out to be a fruitful occasion to confirm that enhancing the quality of digital insurance will lead to delivering value to the customers and that the companies participating in this session are all committed to continue exploring and implementing further measures to advance their respective capabilities to provide highly convenient services to their customers through co-creation.
Overview of ITC Japan 2024
InsureTech Connect (ITC) was founded in 2016 in Las Vegas, USA and has since become the largest global gathering for innovation and transformation in the insurance industry. Over the past few years, the ITC brand has expanded to the Asia Pacific market in 2021, LATAM and European market in 2023.
At InsureTech Connect, we are more than just a platform; we are committed to growing the insurance industry together with our thought leaders, fostering meaningful conversations between innovation leaders that help accelerate the industry together.
In 2023, ITC Asia launched a Japan roadshow with Plug and Play as we saw the potential and the demand from the people wanting to learn more about the Japan insurtech market. The number of attendees exceeded our expectations and as a result, ITC Japan 2024 has been formed to serve as a key market for the ITC brand moving forward.
This first gathering organized by ITC Japan in 2024 turned out be a fruitful event, bringing together entrepreneurs, insurance leaders and investors to highlight the latest insights, spur new connections, and create new opportunities.
Overview of the panel discussion
Theme: SMBC Group’s Co-Creation in Digital Insurance
Panelists:
Kazuya Fujita, Vice President – SMBC Nikko Securities Inc.
Yoshiki Sato, Group Manager of Operational Business Promotion Department of Marketing Division – Sumitomo Mitsui Card
Ryosuke Mori, President and Representative Director – Lifenet Insurance Company
Masaru Kawakami, Representative Director and President – InsureMO K.K.
Kei Ikenishi, President and Chief Executive Officer – Techmark Japan
* The above information on the panelists’ affiliation and executive positions are as of the date of their participation in the panel discussion(March 12, 2024).