Zurich has launched Zurich eXchange, a global Application Programming Interface (API) marketplace it says allows customers, distributors and partners to connect digitally with the insurer from a single, all in one platform.

Group Chief Platform Officer Frank Verkerk says an API-led approach allows Zurich to leverage its global footprint and by “collecting our APIs in one place,” interfaces can be shared more effectively.

“While APIs aren’t new, Zurich eXchange demonstrates Zurich is serious about doing digital business,” he said.

An API enables different systems to communicate with one another effectively and Zurich says opening up and publishing its APIs helps it avoid complex point-to-point integrations.

The new platform has been adopted by 15 Zurich business units so far, covering 1433 managed APIs with more than 63 million API-enabled transactions a month. Zurich eXchange currently offers 50 open APIs all in one place for use by Zurich’s customers and partners.

"Zurich is already enabling its commercial claims customers to seamlessly access their latest claims data and policy documents digitally at any time,” it says, while other APIs allow customers and partners to easily integrate new Zurich insurance products into their own digital channels.

The shared API management platform and standards are designed to ensure that when Zurich builds APIs they have “quality and security at their core,” it says, and can be easily discovered and reused.

“The launch of Zurich eXchange … enables partners and business to seamlessly integrate with our products and services, and it plays a key role in promoting innovation to deliver real value for our customers,” Group Chief Information and Digital Officer Ericson Chan said.