Bryan McLachlan to Lead TransUnion's Insurance Business in South Africa

TransUnion has named financial services industry veteran Bryan McLachlan as head of its insurance business in South Africa as it looks to support the accelerating digital transformation of the insurance industry.

McLachlan’s appointment comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged as a powerful driver for digital transformation in the insurance industry, with a growing shift from an intermediated world to one of digital onboarding and servicing.

"Bryan’s breadth and depth of experience in both the insurance and financial arenas, and his proven leadership ability, will be of great value to both our customers and organisation as we continue to build out our offering to the insurance industry,” said Robin Wagner, senior vice president, International Insurance at TransUnion.

McLachlan, who started his new position on 19 October, has 30 years’ experience in the insurance, banking, retail and technology sectors. He was previously the managing director of paperless life insurer Instant Life, which was subsequently sold to Absa. Prior to that, he headed the Direct to Consumer division at AIG, and spent six years heading Strategy, Marketing and Customer Value for Nedbank’s Retail Relationship Banking division.

“TransUnion has a clearly defined purpose of using Information for Good. With the insurance industry in South Africa undergoing a seismic shift in the digital space, I look forward to bringing our solutions to bear so insurers can continue to build trusted relationships with the consumers they serve. As businesses and consumers across the nation continue to wrestle with the impact of the pandemic, successful insurers will be the ones that effectively manage risk whilst giving customers a great experience,” said McLachlan.

TransUnion research on the performance of insurers during the pandemic showed COVID-19 had sparked a fundamental change in consumer demand and buying behaviour, requiring new digital assets like seamless onboarding, with robust identity verification at point of contact.

With consumers demanding a different experience and buying journey, digital onboarding and self-service will no longer be a differentiator, but a must, said Wagner. Research^[1] shows businesses lose up to 70% of potential customers because of cumbersome onboarding processes.^{^[2]}

“Some insurers are meeting these challenges, using digital technologies to better harness data, transform business models and create new value propositions. However, overall, the industry has been slow to transform, and we believe Bryan has a critical role to play in this regard,” said Wagner.

TransUnion's insurance business unit provides a range of digital, data and analytic offerings to insurance companies to assist with customer acquisition, identity verification, underwriting and fraud prevention.

McLachlan holds a Masters’ degree in Commerce from the University of Johannesburg and an Advanced Management Programme certification from INSEAD Business School in France.

^[1] _{The Battle to On-Board 2 Research Report - https://resources.signicat.com/b2ob2}