The national information system is going to expand the collection of data on personal types of insurance and life insurance

The National Insurance Information System is going to expand its functionality by receiving data from insurers on personal types of insurance and life insurance. Currently it is limited to auto and home insurance data. Questions remain for market participants and experts about how the initiative will help consumers. However, this may result in additional costs for insurers.

The National Insurance Information System (NSIS, a 100% subsidiary of the Central Bank) is going to expand the collection of industry data on personal types of insurance: accident insurance, voluntary health insurance (VHI), and life insurance. The discussion of this issue with the insurance community and the regulator was announced on Monday, December 18, by Nikolai Galushin, General Director of NSIS, at the conference of the Association of Professional Insurance Brokers. Currently, all information on four types of insurance has already been transferred to NSIS (operator of the automated information system (AIS) of insurance): compulsory motor liability insurance, comprehensive insurance, voluntary motor third-party liability, home insurance.

According to the top manager, this will lead to increased data transparency, including to combat misselling, as well as to disclose the actual profitability of life insurance policies. There will also be more opportunities to combat fraud, which is moving into accident insurance and life insurance from motor types, Mr. Galushin noted. The All-Russian Union of Insurers (RUS) considers it possible to discuss the initiative in the future by 2025. The Central Bank did not promptly respond to Kommersant’s request.

However, market participants had mixed assessments of the NSIS initiative. “Data transfer alone does not solve the issue of improving the quality of sales and creating new value for the consumer. Nevertheless, NSIS can become part of the process of working with misselling,” says Evgeny Ilyin, member of the board of Rosgosstrakh.

The initiative raised additional questions among experts. It is not very clear how this will increase the transparency of data on misselling and actual profitability, especially since companies are already required to disclose profitability to clients, says Vladimir Shur, director of Kept’s practice for working with financial sector companies. The question remains how data on VHI will be taken into account, because this is a service related to receiving a specific volume of medical care in specific medical institutions, notes Mikhail Kunin, head of the personal insurance department at Nobilis.

At the same time, according to Mr. Ilyin, the transfer of data will lead insurers to additional costs for integration, as well as the restructuring of business processes, which will not have a positive impact on business margins for companies and the profitability of life insurance for clients. While under compulsory motor liability insurance the mechanism for data transfer and accumulation has already been developed, then for other types this is simply not the case, confirms Banki.ru expert Alexander Makarov.

At the same time, the NSIS itself will have to spend money on expanding the data collection system. Previously, it acquired software and infrastructure to launch AIS for 2 billion rubles. According to Kommersant’s interlocutor in the insurance market, the costs of transferring new types of insurance will be “much less, since this is not the purchase of a huge base, but essentially an add-on to it.”

In addition, experts point to the need to ensure the information security of the system to prevent the possibility of data leaks. This is especially important for NSIS, since the company stores a huge amount of personal data. “Knowledge about personal insurance could potentially lead to new types of social engineering,” believes SafeTech commercial director Daria Verestnikova. “In particular, callers may appear offering to renew insurance for cars, real estate, etc., or scammers issuing fake policies.” .

Yulia Poslavskaya