What is Straight Through Processing in Insurance? Everything You Need to Know

In the world of insurance, automation is rapidly transforming how insurers handle underwriting, claims processing, and customer service. A concept that's gaining particular traction in the Property & Casualty (P&C) sector—especially in auto insurance—is Straight Through Processing, or STP. This powerful approach promises faster workflows and reduced manual effort, but many STP solutions still fall short of delivering true, end-to-end automation.

That’s where True STP comes in. Unlike typical STP solutions that leave the last stages to human intervention, Inaza’s True STP enables complete automation from start to finish, requiring no final manual checks or corrections. This comprehensive approach revolutionizes both underwriting and claims, enhancing accuracy, efficiency, and customer satisfaction.

Let’s dive into what makes True STP unique and how Inaza is setting the standard for real, fully automated processing in insurance.

1. Understanding Straight Through Processing in Insurance

A Brief History of STP

Straight Through Processing (STP) originated in the financial services industry in the 1990s, primarily as a solution for automating stock and securities transactions. The goal was to enable transactions to move from initiation to completion without manual intervention, ensuring greater speed, accuracy, and cost-efficiency. In banking and finance, STP quickly demonstrated the value of full automation by reducing processing errors and increasing transaction volumes with minimal additional effort.

As technology evolved, the insurance industry adopted STP to streamline complex processes such as policy issuance, claims processing, and renewals. However, many traditional STP solutions still rely on manual checks in the final stages, often requiring human intervention to verify details or address discrepancies. This creates a gap between the promise of STP and its actual application—until now.

What is STP?

STP is a workflow automation solution that completes insurance tasks like claims processing, underwriting, and renewals without manual input, ensuring efficiency and consistency across operations. It helps insurers reduce turnaround times and minimize human error by processing information and making decisions based on preset rules.

The Problem with Traditional STP Solutions

While STP has become a staple for automating certain parts of the insurance workflow, most systems fall short of complete automation. Traditional STP often relies on human verification in the last stages, which not only slows down the process but also introduces opportunities for human error. This partial automation is far from the seamless, end-to-end STP that insurers truly need to scale effectively and maintain high accuracy.

True STP by Inaza: What Sets It Apart

Inaza’s True STP is a full realization of STP, handling every step of the process autonomously and eliminating the bottlenecks created by manual intervention. By automating the last mile of processing, Inaza’s True STP ensures that underwriting and claims processes are fully completed without requiring final manual review. This not only accelerates processing times but also enhances accuracy and consistency, allowing insurers to realize the true potential of STP.

2. True STP in Underwriting: Unlocking Efficiency and Accuracy

How Inaza Delivers True STP in Underwriting

Inaza’s True STP for underwriting automates every aspect of the process, from data collection to final policy issuance, ensuring a seamless workflow with no human intervention required. Here’s how it works:

1. Comprehensive Data Integration and Verification:
   Inaza’s system collects data from emails, phone calls, images, and reports to form a full applicant profile. It verifies eligibility for discounts by cross-referencing each data point, ensuring that only qualified discounts are applied, reducing premium leakage and boosting revenue accuracy.
2. Automated Outreach for Missing Information:
   If any critical information is missing, Inaza’s platform automatically contacts agents or applicants, requesting specific documents or details. This proactive approach eliminates processing delays and ensures each application is complete without manual follow-up.
3. Data-Enriched Risk Assessment:
   By integrating data from various sources, Inaza performs a nuanced risk assessment, including insights on location, past claims, and unique vehicle characteristics. This enrichment ensures precise pricing and helps identify high-risk profiles without human input.
4. Autonomous Policy Decision and Issuance:
   Once all data is verified and risks are assessed, Inaza’s system issues the policy directly to the applicant, requiring no final review. This true end-to-end automation boosts efficiency and enhances scalability, allowing underwriters to focus on complex, value-added tasks.

Inaza’s True STP in underwriting delivers unparalleled accuracy, prevents revenue loss, and empowers insurers to handle higher volumes with fewer resources.

Key Benefits of True STP in Underwriting

• Reduced Premium Leakage: By automatically verifying every detail, Inaza’s system prevents premium leakage, ensuring that discounts and calculations are applied correctly and that all necessary requirements are met.
• Enhanced Fraud Detection: AI-driven analysis spots potential fraud that manual reviews could miss, such as invalid documentation or discrepancies in the applicant’s profile. This reduces the risk of underwriting fraud and enhances the accuracy of risk assessments.
• Scalability and Efficiency: With True STP, insurers can handle more applications without expanding their teams. This means underwriters can focus on high-value tasks—such as interacting with clients or managing complex cases—while the system processes routine applications autonomously.

3. True STP in Claims: From FNOL to Completion

How True STP Works in Claims

For insurers, the claims process begins with the First Notice of Loss (FNOL) and typically involves collecting a vast amount of information from various sources. Inaza’s True STP automates every part of this journey. From FNOL to compiling a detailed claims pack to be provided to a claims handler, it streamlines data gathering and verifies critical details automatically. It even manages follow-up communications with policyholders to collect any missing information, ensuring that claims are complete and accurate before they reach a human reviewer.

A unique feature of Inaza’s True STP is the Claims Pack, which consolidates all relevant claim data—such as emails, phone conversations, reports and photos, and policy information—into a single, organized file. This means adjusters only need to step in when complex cases arise, allowing routine claims to be processed entirely by the system.

Key Benefits of True STP in Claims

• Enhanced Customer Satisfaction: Automated responses throughout the claims process keep policyholders informed and eliminate long wait times, creating a smoother, more transparent experience.
• Streamlined Focus on Complex Cases: Since straightforward claims are fully automated, claims adjusters can devote their attention to high-priority cases or claims requiring special investigation, improving service quality and reducing resolution times for intricate cases.
• Fraud Detection and Cost Savings: By automatically analyzing claims data, Inaza’s system identifies discrepancies, verifies claims authenticity, and prevents unnecessary payouts, safeguarding insurers from costly fraud.

4. The Inaza Difference: Achieving True End-to-End Automation

Overcoming the Final 10% Hurdle

Many STP solutions can only automate up to a point, leaving final decision-making or verifications to human hands. Inaza’s True STP, however, achieves complete automation, even in the last stages that other solutions often struggle with. By leveraging AI and data enrichment, True STP ensures that every task—from underwriting approvals to claims settlements—reaches its final, completed stage without needing human input.

Intelligence-Driven Automation for Accurate Decision-Making

Inaza’s technology, including tools like Decoder, AI data enrichment, and fraud detection, powers True STP’s unique capacity for autonomous decision-making. These intelligent systems verify every data point, assess risks, and ensure consistency across the board. The result? Reliable, accurate outcomes that minimise error, cut operational costs, and speed up policy issuance and claims processing.

Future-Proofing Insurers with True STP

For insurers, Inaza’s True STP isn’t just about automation—it’s about future-proofing. By fully automating underwriting and claims processes, insurers can scale efficiently, take on more business without expanding their teams, and maintain a high level of accuracy and customer satisfaction. True STP ensures that insurers stay competitive in an industry where efficiency and accuracy are paramount.

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Straight Through Processing has long been a promising concept in insurance, but only Inaza’s True STP delivers the full end-to-end automation that insurers need to stay competitive. With True STP, P&C insurers—especially those in auto insurance—can process policies and claims with unprecedented speed, accuracy, and consistency, all while freeing their teams to focus on high-value interactions and complex cases.

If you’re ready to experience the next level of automation and see how True STP can transform your operations, contact us today or schedule a demo to explore Inaza’s unique approach to end-to-end automation.