Visa, Insurers Partner On Real-Time Claims Payouts

Visa has struck a number of new partnerships to digitize and accelerate insurance claims payouts, the company said in a press release Friday (Sept. 13).

The global payments giant said it is speeding disbursements to customers of PNC Bank and Erie Insurance customers. Visa also said that it is working with InsurPAY by Invenger Technologies to help enable real-time disbursements for American Family.

Globally, said Visa, in a nod to other partnerships in place, payment services partners including SafeCharge, in conjunction with Setoo, and Peoples Payment Solutions with TELUS Health, are working together to use Visa Direct to make insurance payouts quickly and easily.

The company said the partnerships help ensure claim payouts are done in “near real time” and can cover use cases, such as accidents or natural disasters, in which individuals are unprepared to complete insurance forms, confirm claim estimates, and pay repair shop and medical expenses.

“Visa believes that money shouldn’t be a stressor in moments of crisis, and waiting on average six to 10 days to access the money from insurance checks is outdated, frustrating and costly to those in need,” said Bill Sheley, senior vice president and global head of Push Payments at Visa.

In terms of mechanics, Visa said Friday that by deploying insurance payouts powered by Visa Direct, Visa’s real-time push payments platform, PNC Bank and Erie Insurance customers can opt to have electronic claims payment delivered to their bank account in real time.

“With consumers having a myriad of digital options to pay their friends, relatives or businesses, it only makes sense for PNC to work with our clients to deploy business-to-consumer payment solutions,” said Chris Ward, head of product management for PNC Treasury Management. “These can also replace a paper check and cash with secure and near real-time digital options like we offer within our ePayments platform in conjunction with Visa Direct.”

Visa said it requires fast-funds enabled issuers to make money available to its recipient cardholders within a maximum of 30 minutes of approving the transaction.