Bancassurance: Savings Banks Join Moneymeets

A rival alliance to the group-wide bancassurance solution “S-Versicherungsmanager” is forming in the savings bank sector. As reported at the time, the two largest public-sector insurers, namely Versicherungskammer Bayern and Provinzial, decided last year to make common cause in digital bancassurance. However, research by Finanz-Szene now shows that this closing of ranks (which was preceded by a long back and forth) was not enough to get the entire sector behind it. Instead, Sparkasse Koblenz, Sparkasse Duisburg and Stadtsparkasse Wuppertal are now investing in a competing solution.

Specifically, the alternative solution comes from Moneymeets, a Cologne-based bancassurance fintech company founded in 2012. As several register entries show, a Koblenz-based company called FinInvest GmbH recently acquired a stake of just under 40% in the company – which in turn is backed in equal parts by the aforementioned savings banks from Wuppertal, Duisburg, and Koblenz.

Moneymeets founder Johannes Cremer confirmed the entry of the three municipal institutions on request but did not want to comment on the financial details of the deal. In industry circles the total commitment is estimated at an upper single-digit million range – whereby it can be understood on the basis the register entries that not only money flowed into the enterprise, but also old partners shares sold.

Sparkasse Duisburg and Sparkasse Wuppertal have been known for some time (see our snippets here) to use the Moneymeets solution to offer their customers digital management of their insurance policies. Sparkasse Koblenz has also integrated the tool, as has Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf, which is the largest partner to date – although it has apparently decided not to participate. In addition, according to Cremer, four Sparda banks are also among the customers, namely Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg and Sparda West. “And in addition, we recently signed a contract with a large Volksbank for the first time,” Cremer said. Around which it concerns, he did not want to say yet.

Read more about the partnership between savings banks and Moneymeets and read the most important business headlines of the day with the Born2Invest mobile app.

Are more savings banks dropping out of the sector solution?

It is unclear whether other savings banks will join the “FinInvest” alliance. The dissatisfaction with the sector’s own solution, however, clearly goes beyond the revolting savings banks from Koblenz, Duisburg, and Wuppertal. As also reported, Versicherungskammer Bayern (VKB) had, after all, initially developed the “S-Versicherungsmanager” in collaboration with Frankfurt-based insurtech Clark – while the then Provinzial Rheinland initially favored a competing approach together with Berlin-based billion-dollar fintech Hypoport.

But then Clark surprisingly pulled out, while Provinzial Rheinland surprisingly buried its own plans to join the VKB solution instead. Instead of Clark, a new technology partner was added, the product analysis is now sourced from policy evaluator Franke & Bornberg, and Wiesbaden-based bancassurance service provider JDC is on board as a further partner. “In view of the constant change of partners, the question arises as to whether one can speak of a coherent product at all with the S-Insurance Manager – or whether it is not rather a combination of different products,” says an insider.

Admittedly, the distribution of the Moneymeets solution is still limited. So far, “around 35,000 transactions have been carried out” with the cooperating savings banks, says Managing Director Cremer. In other words, around 35,000 policies have either been concluded or transferred to the Moneymeets platform via the broker mandate.

Cremer put the total revenue generated in 2021 (i.e. not only with the savings banks, but also with the Sparda banks, for example) at a “not low, but also not quite mid-seven-figure sum”; the break-even point has “almost been reached”. With the fresh funding, Cremer now wants to expand his currently 31-strong team and win further partners, primarily from the two associations.

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(Featured image by Jorge Franganillo CC BY 2.0 via Flickr)

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First published in finanz-szene.de, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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