MetLife automates underwriting

Venkatachari Jagannathan
14 August 2003

Chennai: Private life insurer MetLife India Insurance Company has started automating a part of its underwriting process to save the underwriter's time.

The company has translated all its underwriting rules into a software module, Aura, to automatically process an insurance proposal and issue the policy, both in medical and non-medical cases.

Says MetLife IT director Ajith Vellat: "Aura helps us to underwrite both at the new business as well as at the reinstatement stage. The module ensures quick turnaround time, in addition to consistency and accuracy of decision. Also checking the history will be easy as there will be records of the customer in the system."

The company will also consider interfacing Aura with the company's website, where a person can feed the data online, pay for the policy through the Web and download his policy.

Aura is one of the several software modules that MetLife uses under its overall IT platform called common operating platforms (COP). MetLife has customised the overall software package used by its sister outfit in Brazil to suit Indian conditions.

"This is part of MetLife International's policy of following uniform practice in countries where it is present. It helps in generating the reports in format it needs for various regulatory needs," says Vellat.