Macquarie Bank and EBIX Australia join forces to dramatically boost business efficiency

30 December 2005

Macquarie Bank and technology company Ebix Australia have joined forces to revolutionise insurance brokers’ office administration and drive business efficiency.

In an industry first, Macquarie Bank and Ebix have developed Macquarie Premium Payments (MPP), an innovative solution that handles receipting and payment functions as well as every brokers’ nightmare, bank reconciliation.

“Brokers’ profit levels can be crunched by increasing compliance costs and softening premiums. Consequently, astute brokers are focusing efforts on streamlining office administration to boost their bottom line and build business value,” says Macquarie Bank Associate Director, Paul Cilia.

“Doing things faster and smarter around the office is a winning formula to improve shrinking bottom lines in an increasingly competitive environment. Macquarie Premium Payments will help brokers achieve these goals.”

Ebix Australia Managing Director, Leon d’Apice, says: “The new module is an industry first, it provides a comprehensive, integrated solution to one of the oldest problems for brokers – how to effectively manage and handle the payment and cash management cycle.”
 
MPP is available to all Macquarie Bank customers who use Ebix software (CBS, eGlobal, & WinBEAT).

Adds Mr Cilia: “The partnership between Ebix and Macquarie Bank is an exciting one with both organisations committed to delivering innovative financial services to brokers and MPP is just the start.”

Macquarie Premium Payments – Innovative Features

Macquarie Premium Payments (MPP) provides end-to-end processing from invoicing and collection of insurance premium payments to automated reconciliation, freeing staff from time-consuming manual procedures like receipt of payments, data entry, banking cheques and tracing payments.

It has three key components:

1. Incoming payments - Manages the collection of premium payments.
2. Payments to all external parties – Manages all payments to clients, insurers, sub agents, creditors and other third parties..
3. Bank reconciliation - Reconciles all outgoing & incoming payments automatically.

MPP enables brokers to offer their clients a range of payment options such as:

• By phone or internet using a credit card,
• BPAY®,
• Locked box, or
• Cash over the counter at Australia Post.

MPP collates clients’ premium payments made through all of these methods and provides the broker with a single electronic banking file daily, which is processed by the broker’s Ebix system updating policy transactions automatically. So brokers do not have to worry about manual cash receipting.

“MPP also automates calculation and charge of the merchant service fee associated with credit cards, enabling brokers to pass these on to clients as a surcharge,” says Macquarie Bank Associate Director, Paul Cilia. “This makes the popular credit card payment option a convenient and affordable one for brokers.”

MPP’s incoming payments are powered by DEFT Payment Systems, Macquarie’s specialised payments service established in 1985. Today DEFT handles over 5 million payments valued at $3.3 billion per annum.

Outgoing payments to external parties such as clients, insurers and sub agents are handled by the Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) Payment option.

This means payments can be made securely via brokers’ Ebix software. Cheques become a thing of the past, as does the need to re-key payment details into stand-alone or internet banking systems. 

Completing the loop is the bank reconciliation option.

“In a fully automated payment world it would have been a major shortcoming not to provide the final piece of the puzzle, an automated bank reconciliation, which eliminates a tedious manual process,” Ebix Australia Managing Director, Leon d’Apice, said.

“We are confident the bank reconciliation feature will be well received by brokers.”

For further information, please contact:

Suzanne Houweling,
Communications Manager
Banking Division
Tel: 02 8232 7029
Mobile: 0410 499 034

Leon d’Apice
Managing Director
Ebix Australia
Tel: 02 8467 3000