AXA, the largest insurance firm in Switzerland, has revealed that its clients can now make use of Bitcoin as a means to remit their insurance payments. With this move, AXA is the first insurance firm in Switzerland to allow consumers to pay for its services via cryptocurrency. This decision was stimulated by the partnership with a crypto broker, Bitcoin Suisse.

However, AXA made it clear that it would only accept payment via Bitcoin only for its non-life insurance services. Life insurance services are excluded because of some restrictive protocols that surround them. The insurance firm claimed that its decision to incorporate digital currency into its daily activities was facilitated majorly by the digital transition of the world’s economy, which occurred during the deadly pandemic as Coronavirus plagued the planet.

AXA’s leader of open innovation, Claudia Bienentreu, believes that AXA’s decision was sparked by the need to respond to the increasing requests made by its clients to provide another means, back with advanced tech, whereby they can pay their premiums faster and more efficiently. In 2018, the insurance company expressed that market research revealed that a significant portion of its customers with the age bracket of 18 to 55 years either have digital currency or interested in it.

Clients who will pay via crypto instead of cash would not pay extra charges to the firm, and also, the risk of transaction rate would not be bored by the client. Bitcoin broker, Suisse, will be the holder of the bitcoins as revealed by the company, and none of it would be entered into the firm’s financial statement.

While the insurance firm does not charge fees to its clients for the Bitcoin transaction, the broker, however, while converting the Swiss franc to Bitcoin, adds its commission fee of 1.75% for each transaction.

In the past, AXA collaborated with some crypto-based firms. In 2017, it joined the vehicle dossier network, which traces and records cars’ life cycles using blockchain. AXA also funded the blockchain challenge hosted by the University of Basel, where it carried out its research on how an insurance company can utilize smart contracts.