Following the creation of the first Corda 4.0 node, the Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative (B3i) has announced the release of v1.0 of its Property Catastrophe Excess of Loss Reinsurance solution on the Corda Network.
Following market collaboration to test and build the product, B3i has now released v1.0, which is designed to make insurance more efficient. B3i states that the solution improves the execution of the risk transfer process by reducing friction across the value chain.
B3i utilises the latest Corda Distributed Ledger Technology, after switching away from Hyperledger Fabric’s blockchain to Corda in June 2018. Leveraging Corda, the B3i application ensures that only relevant participants have instant access to appropriate data with control of what information is disclosed to third parties.
B3i says that the solution is designed for the insurance market, is for brokers advising and assisting clients, as well as for insurers managing their risks and for reinsurers providing capital. B3i’s Cat XoL enables these parties to interact, negotiate and place risk both more securely and efficiently, explains the firm.
When compared with the traditional process, B3i says that the application will offer the following key benefits:
- Critically reducing effort in the manual activities required to place, renew and manage a CAT XoL treaty. For example, removing the need to replicate communication of the submission package to each participant in the treaty.
- Improving contract certainty as all parties share a common view of the state of the contract at all points in time. ‘First the deal, then the detail’ will become a thing of the past.
- Reducing operational risk due to the elimination of double keying, (trans)coding and management of the information currently supporting the placement of CAT XoL treaties.
B3i’s Chief Product Officer, Sylvain De Crom, said: “B3i is shipping its first application and this is our first opportunity to share with the wider market, not only the Cat XoL application, but also the wider infrastructure we have built to date.
“The importance of this release is fundamental in delivering to the insurance market the ability for seamless negotiation, efficient placement and contract certainty on a distributed platform that allows parties to retain ownership of their data. We are all very proud to be able to use this new technology, to help make insurance faster, cheaper and better for all our customers across the world.”
The firm notes that with all parties sharing one version of the information, operational risks are dramatically reduced. For large companies, the application enables them to manage their intra-group reinsurance across numerous legal entities in different countries. At the same time, B3i explains that the platform can also manage retrocessions as well as treaty reinsurance programmes.
B3i’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), John Carolin, added: “This is a pivotal moment for B3i, the team and its shareholders and this release is one we are proud to share.
“Looking ahead, the team are working with our customers in preparation for a live parallel run for year-end renewals whilst working towards subsequent releases and a production ready version in Q4 2019.
“B3i has laid the groundwork with this historic milestone, which paves the way as we continue to enhance the already rich functionality of our offering. In addition, B3i will be accelerating our partnership strategy to bring a broad array of solutions to customers.
“It’s a busy time at B3i and we are excited about the future!”
Some key features of B3i Cat XoL, include treaty creation and file sharing, contract certainty, interaction and dialogue, negotiation workflow, and a treaty overview screen.
