More insurance sevices on the Internet
More insurance services on the Internet Self-service life insurance and insurance management now available from Merita's Solo web bank Finland is entering a completely new era in the availability to insurance services on 9th May, 2000: The insurance section of Merita's Solo web bank will be the first in Finland to allow clients to take out life insurance on a "self-service" principle via the Internet. At first the new service will apply only to Selekta credit life insurance, but it will later expand to other Merita life services. It is now also possible to manage personal pension and savings insurance plans through the web. With the new service, Solo web bank clients will be able to incorporate Selekta credit life insurance in case of death in their loans and even draw up the entire insurance contract themselves from start to finish via the Internet. The client is directly linked up to the insurance information system. The service covers existing Merita Bank loans, and on the basis of this information the system guides users through the process of tailoring their own insurance contracts. The system later sends the clients confirmation of contract in written form. "The new system adds to the Solo web clients' already wide range of services, by extending it to cover the products offered by Merita Life Assurance Ltd," says Executive Vice President Bo Harald, responsible for payments and network banking at MeritaNordbanken. MeritaNordbanken's Solo is an electronic banking service offering the widest range of financial services in the world and it is also one of the world's biggest web banks. Solo services are used 3.5 million times a month and it serves a total of 1.3 million Internet users, over 800,000 of them in Finland. Solo is gaining popularity in Sweden, too, and it is also expanding into Denmark. Possibility for investment plan and mutual fund changes Since last autumn it has been possible to monitor basic information on Selekta pension or savings insurance products and to follow up insurance savings development on-line. From now on clients will even be able to change their unit-linked insurance investment plans themselves and also decide on the allocation of future insurance premiums among different yield options. It is also possible with the new system for the client to change the mutual fund to which the value of savings are linked, or switch from guaranteed savings to unit-linked savings. Changes in the investment plan and reallocation of funds can easily be made with the help of the information system by changing the percentage distribution. "The fact that clients can manage their own insurance on-line, independent of time and place, is especially important in the case of unit-linked insurance, where the balance is subject to daily fluctuations," says Jukka Venäläinen, Director of Business Operations of Merita Life Assurance Ltd. He promises that Solo insurance services will be extended even further as experience of the new web service grows. The new system also applies to WAP users of Solo, who can now read their insurance balance on the WAP screen. In the future other Solo insurance services will also be available wirelessly via the Internet. For further information please contact Director of Business Operations Jukka Venäläinen, Merita Life Assurance Ltd, tel. +358 (0)9 165 27604, jukka.venalainen@merita.fi Executive Vice President Bo Harald, MeritaNordbanken, tel. +358 (0)9 165 42256, bo.harald@merita.fi ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/05/09/20000509BIT00170/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/05/09/20000509BIT00170/bit0002.pdf