North America's seven million small businesses will spend $43 billion on insurance in 2001, and banks are increasingly looking to reach this profitable market via the Internet, says a new report from Massachusetts-based Meridien Research.
Dave Potterton, research director at Meridien, says: "Since shopping for insurance isn't an everyday occurrence, financial services portals are an ideal delivery mechanism...The use of targeted portals lets banks offer a single access point to more sophisticated cash management, brokerage, and insurance services."
According to Meridien, banks are employing two strategies to add small-business insurance services to their portfolio: acquiring insurance agencies and/or entering partnerships and outsourcing arrangements with insurance carriers, agencies, and aggregators.