European Insurance Firms Launch New Blockchain Consortium

Five major European insurance and reinsurance companies have partnered on a new blockchain initiative, seeking a potential new path for delivering faster and secure client services.

The project

, dubbed the Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative, or B3i, is aimed at providing a meeting ground for the companies to exchange ideas, test use cases and pursue concepts that could ultimately reshape how they deliver insurance services. The firms taking part are Allianz, Aegon, Munich Re, Swiss Re and Zurich, constituting some of the biggest companies of their kind in the region.

The group is the latest enterprise-driven consortium to emerge, following in the footsteps of initiatives like R3 and the Post-Trade Distributed Ledger Group.

Those backing the B3i effort say that it could ultimately lead to new ways of doing business. Mark Bloom, Aegon’s chief technology officer, said in a statement:

“We want to be at the heart of these developments and see Blockchain as one of those potential catalysts for change. By actively creating partnerships and making strategic investments we can build smarter solutions together with our clients."

For Allianz – which has explored applications for the exchange of catastrophe bonds and has worked with startups in the space through its fintech accelerator – the technology offers a means to increase transparency for its customers.

“This initiative, enabling alternative operating models based on the Blockchain technology, can help us increase transparency and efficiency and deliver a better experience to our customer,” Allianz Group COO Christof Mascher said in a statement.

The companies involved said they hope other firms in the insurance and reinsurance industries join the initiative. The goal, according to statements, is to advance use cases “across the entire insurance value chain”.

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