Joint Electronic Teller Services Limited (JETCO) today announced its partnership with insurtech start-up GoLion to offer insurance APIs via the JETCO APIX (API exchange) platform. At this stage, these APIs cover over 30 insurance products, including travel, saving, term life, hospital cash, personal accident, helper and study aboard student insurance plans from three major insurers in Hong Kong.

While currently some eCommerce providers offer insurance products on their platforms, what the buyer usually gets after completing the payment process is an email with a redemption code or e-voucher for redemption on the insurer’s website. This is mainly due to licensing requirement which does not permit companies without an insurance license to sell directly to consumers.

The APIs offered by GoLion via JETCO APIX will help simplify this process by enabling seamless and safe connection between the eCommerce providers and insurers, making it possible for consumers to complete the whole purchasing process, including issuance of the insurance policy, all on the third-party eCommerce platform, saving the time and trouble of redemption.

Two lifestyle eCommerce providers, GroupBuya and FITZ, are already utilising the GoLion insurance APIs on JETCO APIX to offer domestic helper and event-based personal accident insurance plans from Allied World Insurance and Blue. GroupBuya is known for its cash back rewards on a wide range of lifestyle products and services while FITZ is a popular platform for sports fans. Consumers can now buy these insurance plans on the two platforms directly and seamlessly.

JETCO Chief Executive Officer Angus Choi said:

“The objective of JETCO APIX is to allow companies from various industry sectors to interconnect through open APIs, hence forming a true API ecosystem. The combination and integration of digital services offered by multiple companies will help bring about best-of-breed customer experience while lowering the cost of product development by all parties involved. The addition of the GoLion APIs to JETCO APIX will help strengthen our platform, which is now offering a total of 540 APIs from 14 banks and connecting over 20 third-party service providers.”

GoLion Chief Executive Officer Eddie Chang said:

“Traditional and virtual insurers alike are embracing digital innovations to offer consumers more convenience. We provide InsurTech such as universal APIs to help connect eCommerce business partners with insurers so that consumers can buy easily. Using the advanced GoLion insurance platform, partners’ community can reach out to all types of simple-process insurance products easily. We believe that it is not the consumers’ job to look for insurance, we are here to fulfill their potential need. JETCO APIX provides us with a great platform to present our partner APIs to a wider audience while integration is made easy and quick due to the common standards used by all users on the APIX platform.”