Based strictly on product merits, credit protection insurance (CPI) ought to be an absolute hit in the insurance market.
Not that it’s in bad shape, to be fair. Recent analysis by HTF Market Intelligence puts its value at about $9.5 billion, a figure that could reach up to $30 billion by 2030.
But when you consider CPI’s potential, you think “chart topper,” not “decent performer, but underwhelming.” It’s like understanding that streaming music has effectively killed CD sales, but not getting why. (Hint: It’s much more efficient for both the end customer and the supplier.)
So how do we get this compelling genre of coverage in front of the sellout-level audiences it deserves?
On the surface, there’s a simple answer: move away from over-reliance on legacy distribution and the outdated technology behind it. Then, follow the path of the digitally embedded methods everyone loves — which EIS OneSuite can easily support.
Given that nothing’s ever truly that simple, let’s explore how we get from the old ways of CPI to potential game-changing breakthroughs.
CPI at the Turning Point (Or So It Seemed)
Credit protection is a really valuable insurance product. It’s a lifeline from a loan default in the event of a sudden injury, illness, or death — one that everyone in the lending equation can appreciate.
- Customers relax knowing their home won’t show up on foreclosure sale listings because they lose their job or suffer another economic reversal of fortune. Nor will their car be a repo agent’s next job.
- Lenders cover their would-be losses on missed payments without risking customer relationships.
- Insurers embed one of their products into the point of sale for another, which makes for a seamless sale with a high potential profit margin.
In recent years, embedded insurance coverage options started popping up in e-commerce transactions for lower-ticket items than cars and homes (jewelry, appliances, consumer electronics, etc). The basic concept isn’t new; it’s the digital point-of-sale embedding that’s so exciting to carriers and consumers alike.
The Legacy Letdown
And that leads us to the main problem.
The legacy or “modern legacy” core systems that plenty of carriers still run on can’t support friction-free digitally embedded insurance. The limitations of their tech stacks prevent them from fully embracing CPI. Don’t just take our word for it: In a 2025 Deloitte co-sponsored survey, 70% of carriers made this exact claim about their outdated tech.
Some of the biggest problems include:
- Integration difficulties: This makes it harder for legacy-bound carriers to partner with businesses that could offer ripe opportunities for maximizing CPI’s potential.
- Suboptimal automation & issuance capabilities: Without the ability to automate policy issuance at the point of sale — including all the required risk analysis, rating, dynamic pricing, etc. — CPI must be purchased in an entirely different transaction. (It’s usually done over the phone or in person, which is more common than you’d expect in these tech-centric times.) It also means CPI policies get written in advance, leaving little room for customization.
- Limited capacity for product differentiation: Legacy systems don’t let carriers create the wide variety of policy types that lending partners want to offer. If they don’t stand out amid the competition, sellers or loaning bodies interested in CPI will find insurers that do.
B2B2C distribution partnerships (with retailers, banks, buy-now pay-later platforms, and other lenders) represent the clearest path for CPI to become the newest hitmaker for every insurer that wants to offer it. To make these partnerships run smoothly, carriers need to go digital — and fast.
EIS OneSuite: Singing the Digital Distribution Tune Everyone Wants to Hear
EIS OneSuite allows insurers to digitally embed CPI products for efficient distribution and accurate policy issuance. This benefits not only insurers, but lending partners and customers as well:
- Robust open APIs serve as seamless connections between carriers using OneSuite, lender and partner systems (CRMs, etc.), and the front-end platforms where customers make purchases — including mobile apps.
- Through PolicyCore, EIS OneSuite features pre-built policy templates and also supports the efficient creation of custom CPI coverages for partners’ specific needs. Insurers create the policies their partners want, and can build variations for industry-specific needs or compliance requirements with reusable components.
- The cloud-native deployment of EIS OneSuite drives digitally embedded CPI by supporting real-time data exchange.
Ready for Digital CPI?
As more lending partners realize the value of digitally embedded CPI, they’re increasingly unlikely to settle for old-school ways of selling the policies. (They may well make it a “digital or bust” ultimatum — in fact, an EIS customer selling CPI in 30+ countries experienced this exact scenario.)
You don’t want to be waiting for partners to put relationships on the line for you to embrace digital distribution for credit protection insurance. But it’s also understandable if you want to know more before you take the leap.
To learn more about selling credit protection insurance without the friction, check out our latest thought leadership piece on the topic.
