Insurance and reinsurance broker Willis Towers Watson has described the recently launched Insurwave, a blockchain platform to support marine hull insurance, as a “game changer”, urging carriers and brokers to adopt the technology.
In May 2018, EY, Guardtime, A.P. Møller-Maersk, Microsoft, Willis Towers Watson, XL Catlin, MS Amlin and ACORD announced that members of the marine sector were using Insurwave to transform the way they manage risk throughout their organisation, and how they collaborate with brokers, insurers and reinsurers.
The Insurwave platform, which was built by EY and Guardtime, utilises blockchain and distributed ledger technology infrastructure from Microsoft and data standards from ACORD, and is the first time that blockchain technology is being leveraged in insurance transactions for marine insurance.
Shaun Crawford, EY Global Insurance Leader, commented: “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.”
The technology will support more than half a million automated ledger transactions and will help to manage risk for over 1,000 commercial vessels in the first year, with plans to expand the platform to other lines of business, such as marine cargo, global logistics, aviation and the energy sectors.
Alastair Swift, Head of Corporate Risk and Broking (CRB) GB, Willis Towers Watson, said: “We are delighted to be at the forefront of blockchain technology which has the potential to revolutionize the insurance industry. This is the first insurance transaction that has been undertaken through blockchain, simplifying and streamlining the transactional process and creating added value for our clients.
“We strongly believe this is an industry game changer and that all carriers and brokers should adopt blockchain technology to drive improved transactional efficiency and innovation for their clients.”
