Insurance giant AXA Switzerland now allows customers to pay premiums in bitcoin

Insurance giant AXA Switzerland now allows customers to pay premiums in bitcoin.

Announcing the news on Thursday, AXA Switzerland said the bitcoin payment option is available for all its non-life products. Life insurance products do not support the option for "regulatory reasons."

"This is AXA's response to growing demand from its customers for alternative payment solutions, with new technologies playing an ever-greater role," said Claudia Bienentreu, head of open innovation at AXA Switzerland.

The company has partnered with Swiss crypto broker Bitcoin Suisse for the initiative, meaning bitcoin payments would go to Bitcoin Suisse and be converted into Swiss francs for AXA Switzerland.

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"AXA holds no bitcoins on its balance sheet," said the company.

While AXA doesn't charge any fee for using the bitcoin payment option, Bitcoin Suisse charges a 1.75% commission to cover currency exchange and transaction fee costs.

Axa said it would support more payment options in the near future, including TWINT, a mobile app-payment solution for the Swiss market.

As for other cryptocurrencies, AXA said that's not possible for now. But customers can contact and express their interest to the company.

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