EY consulting announced the launch of the world’s first blockchain platform for the marine insurance sector, in collaboration with Guardtime, A.P. Møller-Maersk A/S, ACORD, Microsoft, MS Amlin, Willis Towers Watson and XL Catlin.
The first of its kind in the insurance industry, the blockchain platform — built on Microsoft Azure global cloud technology — is planned to be implemented from 2018 onward and its initial phased rollout will involve deploying the benefits of blockchain for end-to-end use across the marine industry.
Specifically, the global blockchain platform connects clients, brokers, insurers and third parties to distributed common ledgers that capture data about identities, risk and exposures, and integrates this information with insurance contracts. The platform offers the ability to create and maintain asset data from multiple parties; to link data to policy contracts; to receive and act upon information that results in a pricing or a business process change; to connect client assets, transactions and payments; and to capture and validate up-to-date first notification or loss data.
Mark Russinovich, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft Azure, says:
“Microsoft believes blockchain is a transformational technology with the ability to significantly reduce the friction of doing business, especially streamlining business processes shared across multiple organizations. Marine insurance is a prime example of a complex business process that can be optimized with blockchain. We remain committed to bringing blockchain to the enterprise, and are glad to work with EY, Guardtime and other industry experts to develop and deploy blockchain solutions powered by Microsoft Azure.”
In this way, the marine insurance industry may address the challenges of its complex international ecosystem involving multiple parties, long paper chains and duplication, high transaction volumes and significant levels of reconciliation, as the platform connects disparate data and processes.
Simon Gaffney, Chief Data Officer, Willis Towers Watson, says:
“Redesigning the insurance process is critical for the evolution of our industry. This initiative has the potential to streamline and simplify insurance transaction efficiency using new technologies, an essential development for the insurance industry.”