MetLife Asia Affiliate Trials Blockchain Insurance Product

LumenLab, an affiliate to insurance giant MetLife's Asia bureau, has successfully trialed a blockchain-powered insurance product to offer financial protection to pregnant women with a risk of gestational diabetes.

According to a news release published Monday, the product, dubbed "Vitana," will connect its customers' electronic medical records to their mobile devices to issue a policy in just a few minutes using a blockchain platform. The system will also make automatic payouts should a customer receive a diagnosis, without requiring customers to file a claim for benefits.

Vitana will be dedicated to women with gestational diabetes, a condition that affects up to one in five expectant mothers in Singapore, where LumenLab is based.

Zia Zaman, MetLife's chief innovation officer in Asia and CEO of LumenLab, said in the release:

"In today's world, people expect experiences to be simple, automated, and digital. We saw an opportunity to test how blockchain can make insurance more seamless and we've partnered with some of the best companies in their fields to create a blueprint to launch new parametric insurance products in the future."

In addition, Vitana will also provide improved data security as it performs "parametric underwriting," meaning that the insurance company will not need to access to the underlying medical data to confirm patients' insurability.

Notably, the product was developed in a regulatory sandbox under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and was highlighted in MAS' annual report as one of the "key innovations" in the initiative.

Vitana is currently under a six-month-long experiment and will be open to Singapore-based patients.

MetLife headquarters in New York City image via Shutterstock