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Universal Fire & Casualty Insurance Company (UFCIC) became the first insurance company to accept cryptocurrency for premium payment.
Based in Detroit, UFCIC provides property and casualty insurance to small business owners across the United States. These include services for commercial property, general liability, inland navigation, business owners’ insurance (BOP) policies and commercial surety.
In order to maintain an advantage in such a competitive environment, UFCIC is looking for a technological advantage. According to UFCIC EVP, director of strategy and analysis John Lucker, the use of crypto for consumer insurance transactions was not a matter of if, but when.
Lucker highlighted their use to provide a wider range of convenient payment options for their direct online surety portal.
UFCIC currently accepts a variety of cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash, and litecoin. Customers can use them to make premium payments for direct online licenses and permits and other bonding products. The UFCIC payment processor also automatically facilitates customer payment transaction processes.
While we are proud to be the first U.S. insurer to offer this capability, we are not standing still, said Rick Klimaszewski, president, chief operating officer and general manager of surety affairs at UFCIC. Going forward, we will continue to expand the menu of cryptocurrency options available for premium payment and customer convenience.
Innovate to compete
As mentioned above, crypto payments were introduced to facilitate payments for UFCIC’s new direct bond web portal. This is another example of how the company is considering innovative approaches to maintain its competitiveness, Klimaszewski concluded.
In addition to these adoptions, CEO Chris Timm also added that the company uses advanced analytics leveraging predictive models, artificial intelligence (AI) and big data resources.
Other companies are also taking a similar approach by embracing crypto payments. While one of the most high-profile cases seems to have backfired, many other companies are moving forward. Although UFCIC has not named its payment facilitator, BitPay has been one of the most active players in the market.
In March, BitPay began facilitating crypto payments for luxury hotel chain Kessler Collection. The following month, the platform began providing its services to online retailer Newegg, as well as the WeWork workspace sharing platform. BitPay CCO Sonny Singh highlighted how his business is booming in light of the growing demand for crypto payment capability.
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