World’s first blockchain platform for marine insurance now in commercial use

By Digital News Asia May 28, 2018

Technology will support more than half a million automated ledger transactions
Plan to expand platform to other types of business insurance

World’s first blockchain platform for marine insurance now in commercial use

EY, GUARDTIME, A.P. Møller-Maersk, Microsoft and insurance industry leaders Willis Towers Watson, XL Catlin, MS Amlin and ACORD announce members of the marine industry are using Insurwave, a blockchain platform to support marine hull insurance.

In an increasingly complex and ever-evolving risk landscape, global businesses will use the platform to transform how they manage risk across their organisation, and how they work with brokers and (re)insurers.

Shaun Crawford, EY Global Insurance leader, says: “It is a proud moment for a number of heavy weight industry participants to be live with a genuine end-to-end blockchain platform in the specialty insurance market. All parties have worked extraordinarily hard, as a closely-knit team, to get to this exciting milestone. To move from proof of concept just a year ago to a fully functioning platform that is delivering immediate value to clients feels exceptional.”

Insurwave, built by a joint venture between EY and Guardtime, leverages on blockchain and distributed ledger technologies Microsoft Azure infrastructure and ACORD data standards.

It will support more than half a million automated ledger transactions and help manage risk for more than 1,000 commercial vessels in the first year.

By connecting participants in a secure, private network with an accurate, immutable audit trail and services to execute processes, the platform establishes a first of its kind digital insurance value chain.

Guardtime CEO Mike Gault says: “We are very proud of the work we have done with EY in developing this platform, beginning with a proof of concept a year ago and then all the way through to this production release. This represents an important milestone not only for the insurance industry but also for blockchain technology, proving it can deliver real value to enterprise customers.”

A.P. Moller - Maersk contributed to the development of the blockchain technology as a pilot client and is continuing on the platform with its marine hull portfolio.

Lars Henneberg, A.P. Møller-Maersk A/S head of Risk and Insurance, says: "Our ambition is to drive the digital transformation of the transport and logistics industry and we see this platform as a testament to the value that can be extracted from streamlining areas of our industry that still rely on manual and often complex procedures.

“Operating around 350 owned container vessels across the world, marine insurance takes up considerable resources for us. Moving it to this platform is helping us automate manual processes and alleviate a range of inefficiencies and frictional costs in the way we have used to trade marine insurance."

The first phase of Insurwave rollout is focused on marine insurance, and EY, Guardtime and Microsoft plan to roll it out to other types of business insurance for the marine cargo, global logistics, aviation and energy sectors.

Bill Pieroni, President and CEO at the global insurance industry organisation ACORD, says: “This solution represents a true innovation for insurance and demonstrates the potential of blockchain for transforming our industry. We are happy to be part of this initiative as it makes an impact across all insurance stakeholders and the entire value chain.”

Matthew Kerner, general manager, Azure blockchain engineering at Microsoft, says: “Blockchain is opening up new possibilities for how enterprises do business with one another, turning complex processes into cost-saving business efficiencies. Microsoft is thrilled to work alongside EY, Guardtime, Maersk and marine insurance industry leaders to bring this platform into production on Azure, proving the enterprise value of blockchain.”