The Institutes RiskBlock Alliance has announced that 18 companies have joined the risk management and insurance industry’s first enterprise-level blockchain consortium.
The RiskBlock Alliance seeks to leverage the blockchain to lower industry transaction costs while increasing the speed and security of data transfers among customers, industry stakeholders, and third parties.
RiskBlock Alliance Executive Director Christopher McDaniel, said; “We’ve been tracking the potential of blockchain technology for years, so it’s incredibly exciting to announce our first wave of members.”
“With the support of this broad range of industry partners, the RiskBlock Alliance will shepherd collaborative blockchain advancement in the insurance and risk management field, which will have a widespread impact on our industry and consumers alike.”
The 18 consortium members were named as: American Agricultural Insurance Company, American Family Insurance ,Chubb, Erie Insurance, Farmers Insurance, The Hanover Insurance Group, Horace Mann Educators Corporation, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Marsh, Munich Reinsurance America, Nationwide Insurance,Ohio Mutual Insurance Group, Penn National Insurance, RCM&D, RenaissanceRe, State Automobile Mutual Insurance Company, United Educators, and USAA.
The Institutes launched the consortium in 2017 and began developing multiple blockchain use cases within a scalable enterprise-level architecture, its initial members represented the property-casualty industry sector.
In its first use case, a tool designed to establish proof of insurance was delivered in partnership with Nationwide in December 2017; RiskBlock Alliance members are currently evaluating this tool for wider roll out.
Other operational areas primed for blockchain disruption include claims processing, negotiation and settlement, investigation, and regulatory reporting.
In partnership with LIMRA, the RiskBlock Alliance will expand to the life, annuity and retirement sectors later this year.
The RiskBlock Alliance said it plans to bring new use cases to some form of production in early 2018.
