Prashant Nema is EVP and CIO of Arch Capital Group. Prior to joining Arch, he served as CIO and CTO at Silicon Valley Bank and held product engineering roles at Oracle, BP, and Xoriant. He spoke with Novarica in early 2021.
What are your top priorities for the next 6-12 months?
Insurers are increasingly interested in the potential value of augmented reality (AR), which represents another channel through which to reach digitally immersed consumers. AR provides data to the user by overlaying digital displays of information onto video of the physical world.
When I transfer money from my bank account to my son’s account at the same financial institution, he can (and generally does) spend the money moments later. If I lose a bet to a friend and have to pay him US$20 in cash, he can spend it right away. Consumers expect money to move from one person to another immediately. But that’s not true in a lot of places in the payments ecosystem.
When I send money to my daughter via Venmo, the funds are there in moments. But if she has her account connected to Venmo by ACH, she needs to wait one to three days to get the money into her account, unless she pays an upcharge.
It is important for solution providers to have a firm point of view on which emerging technologies matter most to insurers. This understanding should be reflected in their story about how these technologies add value to the insurer’s business.