Insurers spy revenue creation possibilities in APrivacy’s secure data technology

A Hong Kong-based security firm providing secure means for banks to send private data to clients is seeing growing interest from the insurance industry as it claims its systems allow customers to create new revenue streams.

Cedric Jeannot, chief executive of financial technology (fintech) start-up APrivacy, said the company’s security features provide an invisible layer to allow banks to send financial information securely to clients through email, document sharing websites and other means.

Retail banks in Hong Kong and private banks in Singapore are the start-up’s biggest customers in Asia-Pacific, and it is now seeing interest from insurers.

“Insurance, surprisingly has a very similar use case to retail [banking]. It’s mobile first, multichannel,” Jeannot said on Wednesday on the sidelines of the 020 Fintech Global Summit hosted by Nexchange and Cyberport.

“We’re a fintech team and cybersecurity is our expertise. But most of what we do is either driving a new revenue stream or saving cost.”

APrivacy relocated its top staff to Hong Kong last year from Waterloo, Canada, after joining the Accenture FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific where it realised the potential for growth in the region.

Jeannot said private bankers are eager to reach out to the next generation of customers through social media, but are limited as they cannot send portfolios securely through sites such as Twitter, or Wechat, and this is where APrivacy’s security features can be employed.