DLT based Trade Insurance Initiatives

When dealing with the uncertainty of the shipping industry, insurance is a must. To help simplify and digitize the insurance process for the international trade industry, some initiatives have turned to the blockchain.  

B3i

“In 5 years plus, DLT and other new technology will offer new ways of doing things – new processes, different business models, and elimination of many things we need to do today through automation.” 

-B3i

B3i is a Switzerland-based consortium startup looking to bring innovation to the insurance space with distributed ledger technology. The firm’s first product for the Reinsurance market, which will be available to the market for the January 2020 insurance renewal season, is a Catastrophe Excess of Loss tool. 

B3i supports the insurance industry by providing its own industry wide platform called B3i Fluidity. This is built on R3’s global Corda network on which both B3i and partners can create applications. This allows a high level of integration between applications as well as to other business networks (e.g. Banking) also running on the Corda network.

As a private company, exact investment details have not been disclosed, but shareholders include a wide array of global companies from the insurance industry, including Achmea, Aegon, Ageas, Allianz, AXA, China Pacific Insurance Company, Deutsche Rück, Generali, Hannover Re, Liberty Mutual, Mapfre Re, Munich Re, SBI Group, SCOR, Swiss Re, Tokio Marine, VIG Re, and Zurich Insurance Group.

Initially founded in March of 2018, the firm effectively launched on October 15, 2019, operating a live parallel run during the year end reinsurance renewal season. The firm believes that the parallel run will show the power of what they have built, and increase the opportunities for B3i, challenging them to maximize scalability, resilience and ability to deliver at speed on multiple products simultaneously.  

Insurwave

Insurwave is a SaaS private blockchain that connects insurance clients with the insurance market in an efficient, private, and data-rich manner. The company seeks to address the challenges that exist in the complex marine insurance ecosystem, which naturally consists of multiple parties, high transaction volumes, and significant levels of reconciliation. The insurwave solution improves risk assessment and service proposition and reduces costs through the automation or removal of various processes surrounding a sales.

Insurwave describes itself as a privacy fabric that connects risk owners, intermediaries, insurers, and capital, minimizing data degradation and maximizing efficiency. The project is a joint venture between EY, technology firm Guarttime, and insurance company Willis Towers Watson. Founding participants for the project include Maersk, AXA XL, MS Amlin, and Willis Towers Watson.

Currently in its second year of trading, the platform has experienced tremendous growth since its inception is March 2018. In the year-long span between October 2018 and October 2019, the initiative grew from just 3 participants to 20, with its operational use skyrocketing from just 25 notifications per month to over 10,000. The venture has won nine international awards for innovation across the insurance and maritime sectors and has now set course to continue trials in Tokyo, Singapore, the USA, and China.