Matt Teumer, Director, Strategic Accounts for Flywire, talks to THIS about how the right payments partner can boost customer retention, close insurance gaps and increase revenue
Matt, you’ve had an impressive career in the payments industry. What led you to Flywire, and what does your role entail?
Thank you. I’ve always known about Flywire, as previously I worked for a payments company that had a partnership with Flywire while I was there. I’ve spent my entire career (12+ years) in cross-border payments and have found, over time, that there are many companies out there with very similar products and minimal differentiation until Flywire.
What led me to joining Flywire was a) the culture is incredible – our employees and the leadership, top to bottom, are remarkable, with a great combo of EQ/IQ and b) the product is truly unique and provides differentiated value vs what exists in the market today. My role is to be the front line of our go-to-market strategy, solving payment inefficiencies for insurer and TPA clients while relaying product feedback back to our business.
My role is to be the front line of our go-to-market strategy, solving payment inefficiencies for insurer and TPA clients
The insurance industry is a particular focus area for Flywire. What were the drivers for bringing Flywire’s solutions to this industry?
Flywire has been processing premium payments since its inception. We were founded in the education space in 2009, helping schools all over the world collect tuition and other student expense payments, including health insurance premiums. Then in 2022, we acquired Cohort Go, which is an agent platform that gives international students the ability to make cross-border tuition and premium payments. Through that acquisition, Flywire became a distributor of OSHC and OVHC policies on behalf of the largest insurance carriers in Australia.
Then from a payment standpoint, there are two major reasons global insurers lose customers: customer payments fail and policies lapse, and/or the insured seek other, less expensive options. Why does this happen?
For one thing, it is difficult for global insurers to provide expert payment support to customers in their local language and time zones in a way that scales. That makes it hard to deliver great customer experiences at scale. Even the most advanced insurance carriers globally often still rely on manual PDF form fills and phone calls for payment via some distribution channels. Customer service processes are less than ideal. Policyholders generally have to reach out directly to the insurer when there are payment failures, and they have questions. The insurer may have to look at interfaces in multiple systems in order to find the right information and provide guidance on what to do next. All that increases frustration – for everyone. At best, customers are left with a poor customer experience. Worse, their coverage is delayed, or they look elsewhere for it.
Secondly, many insurers price policies in only a few currencies and leave it to their policyholders to figure out how to send payment in that same currency. Depending on what payment method they decide to use, they could face foreign transaction and FX fees that tack on as much as 6% to their final premium bills. These unclear costs, coupled with the lack of payment support, can drive policyholders and groups to switch to less expensive options with better customer service.
there are two major reasons global insurers lose customers: customer payments fail and policies lapse, and/or the insured seek other, less expensive options
What are some of the particular pain points of travel and health insurers that are being helped by Flywire’s solutions?
Flywire isn’t only a payment processor. We’re a strategic partner that also provides the banking network to move the funds globally, and software-driven experiences that make high-value transactions appear as simple as making ecommerce ones. In insurance, that looks like this: Payers see their total policy cost up front, can pay securely in their preferred currency and method, and have confidence their payment went through. Insurers and brokers receive payment in their currency of choice, can track those payments in Flywire’s user interface and s
ee payments data in their system of record if Flywire is integrated. Carriers know exactly when they will be paid, how they will be paid and what that payment is for.
Flywire enables businesses to provide local payment options to payers – without taking on FX risk. Flywire gives global insurers a single integratedand embedded solution for all payment types. Instead of needing to build custom fields and different checkout
experiences for multiple payment types and workflows, Flywire enables clients to embed all of these options into one single frame through one connection point. This is where Flywire’s turnkey solution really differentiates and solves for the inherent complexities in the insurance space.
Why is it so important for insurers to optimize their global payments capabilities, and what are the resultant benefits for insureds?
Providing a way for payers to seamlessly make payments online, in their local currency and payment method of choice – along with conveniences such as support for recurring payments and direct debit – presents a massive opportunity for insurers for both customer acquisition and retention. The best way to tell if you’ve made a quote-to-buy experience easy is when the point of actually making the payment is uneventful for the payer. This can lead to improved customer satisfaction, while reducing costs and back-office inefficiencies for the insurers.
How do you see the global payments space evolving, in terms of your ability to continue solving challenges for the insurers and insureds of tomorrow?
There’s two connected pieces to this in my view. One is payment methods and the ability to meet global payers, providers, and businesses where they are – providing access to low-cost, instant payment methods. The second piece is data – being able to offer not only efficient, cost-effective payment modalities but also connecting data to the payments, whether it’s policy ID, which is simple and something we do today, or extended remittance information that travels with payments to providers or hospitals. Getting that data, along with the full value of the payment from A to B to C in a standard, secure format. I think the future is not only in the actual payments, but a way in which the payment provider can connect all parties – because, ultimately, a company like Flywire is already in each step of the money movement.
You can contact Matt Teumer at matt.teumer@flywire.com
