As Head of Sales Credit & Surety at SCHUMANN Lara Biermann is advising and supporting international credit risk insurer and surety bond provider in digitizing and automating their risk and business process management. She studied business administration focused on finance, accounting and taxes and supervises international credit and surety insurance companies while implementing CAM Credit & Surety.
Blog Post, Credit & Surety
18.10.2022, Lara Biermann
Why a Specialized Software for Surety Bond Business is Necessary
Surety bond business is a so called speciality line and is fundamentally different from other kinds of insurance business. Only highly specialized software can meet the complex requirements of this market so as to enable maximum success.
Bank-like Business Modell
With surety bonds an on-going credit line is granted, so that bank-like transactions are mixed with typical insurance business. This requires continuous and automatic analysis and evaluation of creditworthiness using balance sheets and agency information.
Complexity
In comparison with other areas of insurance the calculation of fees and premiums is highly complex. Regarding fees alone, there are at least 20 different types with diverse factors of influence. There are also complicated tax calculations that differ internationally. Specialized software with transaction administration for facilities, bonds and single risks throughout their entire life cycle from the initial transactions onwards can take all of this into account and perform the calculations automatically.
Ecosystem
Continuous creditworthiness evaluation processes make electronic interfaces to external partners such as business information agencies an essential requirement. In addition, specialist brokers for surety bonds have to be connected digitally and brokers and clients must be integrated seamlessly into the procedures. Only in this way fast processes can be enabled.
Security
The insurance certificate in surety bond business is especially worthy of protection. In contrast to other types of insurance, the certificate itself is worth money and must be protected accordingly. This applies not only to the issuing process but also to the return process, which with system support can be performed faster and more securely, and can be comprehensively documented.
The Third Party
In surety transactions there is always a third party. The beneficiary is always a fixed party in the transaction right from the start, and not only after a claim occurs. Standard insurance software does not allow for this and therefore processes, transactions and evaluations (such as the necessary KYC checks) can neither be represented nor performed automatically.
The Software for Surety Bonds
Only highly specialized software such as CAM Surety can meet the special requirements of this market.
CAM Surety provides portfolio administration, risk evaluation and accounting in one system and with one user interface. The system provides support with the digitalization of the business – starting with customer and broker access via a portal, right up to interfaces to business partners such as information agencies.
