By: Didier Serra, EVP, Sales & Marketing at SecureKey Technologies Inc. Trust is the foundation of the insurance industry, as the relationship between insurance providers and customers relies on the exchange of information. Organizations want the information they receive from those submitting a claim to be as accurate as possible, while customers want their data to be safe and secure while sending and receiving details about their claims. Everyone wants the peace of mind that when they send their valuable personal information along, it goes to the right place with no complications. On October 10, I had the pleasure of being a part of this ongoing discussion at an event we hosted alongside Prodigy Labs. Authenticated Digital Identity and Consent for the Insurance Industry delved deeper into these issues and analyzed how we can improve the pathways of digital identity verification for the insurance industry. Hosted at the beautiful One Eighty venue in downtown Toronto, the speakers shared their experiences as we discussed the current landscape of insurance and opportunities for the future. At the centre of it all was our very own Verified.Me – a first-of-its-kind blockchain-based digital identity network that helps customers and insurance providers verify identities online, while streamlining business processes and gaining greater trust in customer data. Keynote Address We kicked off the afternoon by discussing the impact and threat of identity fraud today. A few of the most alarming statistics we highlighted include:

• 37% of Canadians have been victims of identity theft over the last two years[1]
• Five billion records were exposed from 6,515 publicly reported data breaches in 2018[2]
• 46% of Canadian organizations reported that cybercrime was the most common type of fraud or economic crime experienced by them in 2018[3]

While these statistics demonstrate that identity fraud continues to worsen each year, we still have a positive outlook. Looking into the future, Verified.Me – our cross-identity, trusted ID network – protects Canadians’ digital lives by helping organizations and customers interact online in a safe and secure way. Privacy and security for new innovations Dr. Ann Cavoukian, recognized as one of the world’s leading privacy experts, provided unparalleled insights and dispelled the myths associated with privacy and security, concluding that control and freedom is critical to individual privacy. She also broke down Privacy by Design as an international standard, representing a core set of principles embedded into new technologies and business practices from creation. She explained that proactivity is key and focusing on prevention with Privacy by Design as a default option is easier and far more cost-effective to build in privacy and security in the upfront, rather than after the fact. Dr. Cavoukian also gave her thoughts on regulatory compliance, stating that it is unsustainable as the sole model for ensuring the future of privacy. Leveraging key learnings from financial institutions Shashank Saurabh, Director of Digital Payments and Identity at Scotiabank, discussed the processes that financial institutions are currently undergoing to better protect digital identity, the successful introduction of Verified.Me and possible applications for the insurance industry. As identity continues to evolve from physical identities to fully digital personas, financial institutions have been required to maintain their customer experience across the wide number of identity mechanisms they are accountable for. Since launching, Verified.Me has allowed these organizations to improve their bottom lines by solving their “Know Your Customer” challenges, improving the customer experience and reducing fraud. For the insurance industry, Saurabh said digital identity can be used to remove friction, improve the customer journey and operate with a higher degree of certainty across several different functions. The digital opportunity for insurers Jamie Rodgers, Vice President and Head of Insurance at Prodigy Labs, highlighted the opportunity that insurance providers have to improve their access to digital risk data and ultimately, the relationship they have with customers. Rodgers highlighted trust as the core of the insurance contract, to get premiums right and to be in a position to pay claims when insured events happen. He also highlighted Verified.Me as a service that delivers trust and verification together, allowing insurance providers to rely on the platform for a variety of insurance-related use cases including the pre-filling of core identity data, enhancement of self-service options, delivery of digital proof of insurance – and much more. In addition, Rodgers shared recent research from Gartner, conducted over the last three years, that stated the insurance industry is finding it increasingly difficult to fully realize the benefits from their digital investments. Key highlights include:

• 12% of those surveyed said their company has been ineffective at factoring digital considerations as an integral part of business strategy and planning. Only 17% said their company was effective – a decrease of 5% since 2017.
• 20% said their company was ineffective at harvesting results from digitalization. Only 5% that said their company was effective.

Proposing that perhaps digital transformation can take an insurer only so far without a solution for digital trust, Rodgers offered Verified.Me as a solution; by using the service, insurers can gain access to and trust digital identity and other material data provided by applicants, policyholders and service providers quickly and efficiently without the need to verfify it after the fact. This reduces costs, gets to trust faster for all parties concerned and reduces fraud with this safe and secure solution. Catalyzing Investments Jeff Watts, President of Prodigy Ventures, concluded the educational afternoon by highlighting the interaction between companies for business architecture and their capabilities to provide technology, advisory and implementation capabilities to accelerate time-to-value and deliver a quantifiable and compelling business outcome. The future of digital ID in the insurance industry is safe and secure. With insurance providers, financial institutions and many other industries working together to support Verified.Me, organizations and customers can trust these streamlined processes to protect their digital lives while accessing and verifying their data. The future of digital ID is a bright one when industries work together. If you’d like to learn more about how the future of digital identity in insurance – and how Verified.Me could be a good fit for your business – please visit our website and download our insurance brochure at https://verified.me/insurance/. Checkout our video from the event below! [embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei6pTw_1d2A[/embedyt] [1] https://investor.equifax.com/news-and-events/news/2019/03-12-2019 [2] https://pages.riskbasedsecurity.com/2018-ye-breach-quickview-report [3] https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/advisory/forensics/economic-crime-survey.html