Jirnexu joins Bank Negara’s fintech sandbox

• Permitted to sell select general and life insurance products from multiple providers
• Will compare, sell, process payments, and issue e-policies

SOUTHEAST Asian fintech startup Jirnexu, the region’s only full stack fintech solutions provider for financial service institutions (FSIs), has been approved by Malaysia’s central bank to compare, sell, process payments, and issue e-policies for insurance products.

Jirnexu is the first company in Malaysia permitted to sell select general and life insurance products from multiple providers, and the first to build a dedicated ecommerce marketplace for insurance.

Receiving approval to join Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) Financial Technology Regulatory Sandbox, which allows participants to introduce innovative fintech services and products, Jirnexu will soon begin transacting term life and motor insurance directly on their financial comparison site RinggitPlus.com.

Jirnexu Insurance director of Lucas Ooi said: “We are excited that Bank Negara has entrusted Jirnexu to drive the fast-growing consumer adoption of digital insurance. We will work closely with our stakeholders to build Malaysia’s first ecommerce marketplace and offer a more comprehensive suite of insurance products — starting with term life and motor insurance.

“Our most recent investment round will play a significant role in developing the technology for Malaysians to search and obtain their insurance from a single platform in a matter of minutes.”

Ooi added: “General insurance premiums reached RM17 billion in 2016, and new business premiums in life insurance grew to RM9.75 billion. Following our success working with banks to innovate new solutions — such as RHB’s recent introduction of Southeast Asia’s first chatbot for processing personal loans online, our proprietary technology continues to raise the bar for the financial service industry.

“We are already working with insurers such as Zurich, Etiqa and UforLife to integrate our technology with their platforms, helping them reach the fast-growing, underserved market of digital consumers.”

Zurich Insurance Malaysia Bhd Life Insurance general manager Mukesh Dhawan, said: "We have been partners with Jirnexu for more than a year, and our partnership has proven to be very valuable. With Jirnexu now as a participant of the Sandbox, we are confident that we can play a greater role in getting more Malaysians insured. Zurich is in a unique position to offer a full range of insurance and Takaful solutions.”

Bank Negara Malaysia introduced the fintech regulatory sandbox framework last October to support innovation that improves the quality, efficiency, and accessibility of financial services in the country.

For the first time earlier this year, startups that offer services ranging from insurtech to remittance and money exchange were admitted to the Sandbox.

According to BNM, Malaysia’s life insurance penetration rate has remained stagnant over the past five years. 

According to Swiss Re data, insurance penetration rates across Asean stood at just over 3% in 2015, well below the global average of 6%.

UforLife general manager Kenny Thing said: “Through our partnership, Jirnexu has helped UforLife underwrite more than RM140 million of sum assured to-date — on track to represent a four-fold increase from 2016. I have no doubt that through the Sandbox, Jirnexu will be a significant force in accelerating the growth of life protection levels in Malaysia.”

 Etiqa Insurance and Takaful chief strategy officer Chris Eng said: “Being able to integrate our system with Jirnexu's technology and better adopt automation will enable us to improve the accessibility of digital insurance to Malaysians. We are excited to see how Etiqa and RinggitPlus can collaborate to deliver market leading customer experience.”

Jirnexu provides a proprietary full stack technology, XpressApply, for financial service institutions to manage every stage of the customer acquisition and lifecycle management journey — marketing, acquisition, fulfilment, and retention.

XpressApply powers Jirnexu’s online financial aggregators RinggitPlus in Malaysia and KreditGoGo in Indonesia.

The company aims to be the Amazon of financial products by providing consumers with greater choice and convenience to purchase financial and insurance products anytime, anywhere, and on any digital device.