How smarter payments can unlock global insurance growth

1. What are the biggest payment challenges for international insurers?

The travel and health insurance back office has more friction than it should. Across IPMI carriers, travel insurers and health plans, five operational challenges sit at the heart of that friction.

Multiple currencies create FX risk and reconciliation complexity, while separate banking relationships fragment oversight. Finance teams spend hours manually matching incoming premiums to policies, from IPMI employer remittances to individual travel payments and health plan member submissions. Incomplete reference data and batch payments add further complexity.

Limited local payment options compound the problem. Travellers expect frictionless checkout, IPMI members need local currency, and health plan members expect the same ease. Without the right options, insurers risk failed payments, coverage lapses and churn.

Siloed ERP, policy administration and payment systems make matters worse, with manual handoffs slowing settlement and increasing errors. Ultimately, this friction can restrict an insurer’s ability to expand, acquire at scale and retain customers.

2. How can payments support international growth?

Payment experience is the gatekeeper to international expansion. Entering a new market often means adapting to local currencies, expected payment methods and compliance requirements.

The insurers best placed to succeed localise the payment experience from day one. Travel customers want to pay online in local currency, IPMI employers want simple local-currency remittance, and health plan members expect frictionless payment.

Offering 1,200+ payment methods across 240+ countries via ACH, bank transfer, e-wallets and regional schemes accelerates policy issuance, prevents coverage lapses, improves retention and reduces DSO. The payment experience supports revenue growth and determines whether you fail or succeed in a new market.

3. Where can technology make the biggest difference?

The biggest opportunity is a unified enrolment-to-cash platform. Many insurers still rely on separate systems for policy administration, billing, payments and reconciliation. Travel carriers juggle booking platforms with billing. IPMI carriers manage employer portals separately from policy systems. Health plans disconnect enrollment from payment collection. The result is manual handoffs and siloed data.

A connected platform can orchestrate the whole journey: a travel customer sees local payment options when a policy is issued; an IPMI employer remittance is automatically matched across multiple employee policies; a health member enrols and recurring premiums are collected automatically.

AI can then tackle work that has been manual for decades. Flywire’s Cash Match AI matches payments even with incomplete data, Remittance AI handles multi-policy scenarios, and AI Cash Flow Forecasting predicts trends and delinquency. That frees finance teams to focus on strategy and customer relationships.

4. Where is AI delivering practical value today?

Cash application and remittance processing are two areas where AI is already delivering practical value, from matching traveller payments at booking to reconciling multi-policy employer remittances and processing recurring health plan premiums at scale.

Cash Match AI handles partial payments and incomplete reference data, Remittance AI auto-applies incoming payments, and AI Cash Flow Forecasting predicts trends and delinquency risk. The results include 70% less reconciliation time, 45% fewer customer enquiries and a 14-day reduction in DSO.

Where I would counsel caution is using AI to replace human judgement. Insurance depends on relationships and trust. We see AI as the tireless assistant handling the repetitive 80%, freeing people to focus on the 20% requiring empathy and expertise.

5. How will premium collection evolve?

Three trends will reshape premium collection and customer interaction.

First, continuous cash visibility will replace monthly closings. Real-time dashboards and AI forecasting can give finance leaders an instant view of cash flow, payment trends and delinquency patterns.

Second, local payment methods will become baseline. Customers will expect local currency, autopay, instant payments, open banking and regional schemes as standard.

Third, reactive will become predictive. AI insights can help insurers identify lapses and churn earlier, enabling more proactive, personalised engagement based on payment behaviour. Insurance moves from transactional to relational.

The wider shift is from seeing premium collection as a back-office burden to treating it as a customer asset. Streamlining the journey from enrolment through reconciliation can support growth and loyalty.