Payments rarely make the CIO’s priority list. They’re treated as plumbing—quietly sitting in the background, expected to work, scale, and never cause problems.
Until they break.
For P&C insurers, payments have outgrown their back-office label. They now influence claims velocity, treasury performance, customer trust, expense ratios, and regulatory exposure. Over
the next 12 months, CIOs will face a hard truth: how money moves through your organization will increasingly define how the business is perceived—and how efficiently it runs.
CIOs are asking big questions about 2026. In this blog, we explore five priorities CIOs must tackle now to future-proof payment systems—and why they matter today.
#1 Why CIOs Must Bring Payments into the Core Platform Strategy
For too long, payments have been an afterthought: a patchwork of gateways, processes, and custom code bolted onto core systems.
That approach creates friction everywhere. Claims teams work around payment delays. Finance teams struggle with reconciliation. IT teams absorb the pain of maintaining brittle integrations.
It’s time to change the conversation. Over the next year, CIOs should elevate payments to the same strategic level as policy, billing, claims, and treasury. Ask the hard questions: Are payment capabilities natively integrated? Is configurability built to evolve with the core platform?
Industry signals are clear. The Capgemini World Payments Report 2025 highlights growing demand for unified digital payment platforms that deliver consistent experiences across the insurance lifecycle.
Our Take:
The goal isn’t to rip and replace overnight. It’s to build payment capabilities that eliminate friction today without deepening technical debt. Duck Creek embeds payments directly into the insurance lifecycle—integrated with policy and claims—reducing complexity while giving operational teams full visibility.
#2 How CIOs Can Design Payment Systems for Choice Without Chaos
Customers expect flexibility. Policyholders want to pay premiums how and when they choose. Claimants expect fast, frictionless disbursement—whether via ACH, real-time payments, or digital wallets.
But choice comes at a cost. Every new payment method adds complexity: more partners, more exceptions, and more points of failure. Without a plan, flexibility becomes fragility.
Industry trends reinforce this urgency. Forrester predicts real-time and account-to-account payment rails will continue gaining traction, requiring payment orchestration across methods
to remain competitive. (Forrester, Predictions 2025: Payments Disruption Roars Ahead, October 2024)
The priority isn’t chasing every new payment method. It’s creating a foundation that allows the business to add and manage options safely—without sacrificing speed or control.
Our Take:
Over the next 12 months, CIOs should focus on payment architectures that deliver choice without chaos by standardizing how payment methods are configured, routed, and governed—rather than hardcoding each option.
#3 Why Claims Payments Are a Critical Customer Moment
Few interactions shape customer trust more than getting paid after a loss. Speed matters—but so do clarity and confidence. This moment defines whether a customer feels supported or abandoned.
Too many insurers still rely on outdated approaches: batch processing, manual approvals, and limited visibility. Customers are told a payment has been “issued,” yet have no idea when it will arrive. That uncertainty erodes trust.
The technology exists. What’s missing is alignment. Payments are often owned by finance, while claims own the customer relationship. CIOs are uniquely positioned to bridge that gap.
Our Take:
Over the next year, CIOs should partner with claims and customer experience leaders to modernize this moment—enabling real-time payment status, proactive communication, and flexible payment options tailored to each situation.
#4 How CIOs Can Strengthen Payment Controls Without Slowing the Business
Payments carry inherent risk: fraud, errors, compliance failures, and regulatory scrutiny. As volumes grow and payment methods diversify, these risks multiply.
The instinctive response is to add more controls—but more controls often slow everything down.
Industry leaders emphasize a balanced approach: aligning controls with evolving regulation while preserving operational speed. (The Payments Association, The Payments Outlook 2025, May 2025)
For CIOs, this is a chance to prove that resilience and agility can coexist.
Our Take: CIOs should prioritize intelligent controls, including:
- Real-time validation to catch issues before they escalate
- Automated exception handling to keep workflows moving
- Built-in audit trails to ensure transparency and compliance
#5 How CIOs Can Build Payment Systems for Change—Not Just Today
The payment landscape won’t stand still. New rails, regulations, and customer expectations are inevitable. What works today will not work forever.
The real question isn’t if change is coming—it’s whether your systems are built to keep up.
Over the next year, flexibility by design should be the priority:
- Configurable rules that adapt without rewriting code
- Modular integrations to easily onboard new partners and methods
- Clear ownership and governance to manage growing complexity
- Agile systems that evolve without months of development and testing
Our Take:
Future-proof payment architecture is not optional. CIOs who build for flexibility now will lead. Those who don’t risk being locked into yesterday’s limitations.
Why Payments Will Decide Which Insurers Win by 2026
Payments may never be the loudest item on a CIO’s agenda—but over the next 12 months, they will be one of the most defining. Insurers that treat payments as a strategic capability will unlock
claims velocity, customer trust, regulatory resilience, and operational clarity.
The gap between leaders and laggards is already forming. CIOs who act now—integrating payments into the core platform—will set the standard for the industry.
Want to go deeper on payments strategy? Read our blog: What End-to-End P&C Insurance Payments Really Mean (and Why It Matters Now) to learn how integrated, lifecycle-driven payments can reduce complexity and elevate customer experience.
