Marsh Insurance Firm Partners With IBM To Apply Blockchain For Proof Of Insurance

Global insurance provider Marsh collaborates with IBM, ACORD, and ISN to develop first commercial Blockchain solution for proof of insurance.

Marsh, a global insurance brokerage and risk management firm, announced the first commercial Blockchain solution for proof of insurance, Business Wire reported April 16.

With this application of Blockchain technology, Marsh aims to transfigure the certificate of insurance process “from complicated and manual to streamlined and transparent”. This will reportedly allow customers to improve business functions such as hiring contractors and transferring risk, while increasing certainty of coverage.

The project is a partnership between Marsh, IBM, ACORD, and ISN. ACORD is a global standards-setting body for the insurance and financial services industries. ISN is a provider of contractor and supplier information management services.

The new proof of insurance solution is being developed on the open source Hyperledger Fabric technology and IBM Blockchain Platform. Sastry Durvasula, chief digital officer and chief data and analytics officer at Marsh, expressed optimism about the collaboration:

“Marsh sees great opportunity in leveraging Blockchain technology to better serve our clients by maximizing efficiency and creating new opportunities in the insurance value chain. We believe strategic engagements such as this one with IBM, ACORD, and ISN will help accelerate the adoption of further Blockchain applications benefiting our clients across industries.”

Many industries require proof of insurance, and a Blockchain offers the possibility to create a “network of networks” to assure verification on a broader scale. Sandip Patel, general manager of insurance industry at IBM, said:

“Vastly simplifying the process for providing proof of insurance is a key enabler of business. IBM is committed to connecting emerging Blockchain networks to facilitate the next generation economy. This is an ideal example of how Blockchain can be used on a much broader scale to drive real business results.”

The first client for the service is ISN. Brett Parker, technical insurance lead at ISN, said:

“The insurance industry has been dependent on paper certificates of insurance, manually populated by an insurance agent. By digitizing the policy information, we can streamline the process saving our customers time to focus on their core competencies.”

Currently, the Blockchain network is in its pilot version, but is expected to enter production later this year. Last month, the Blockchain initiative B3i announced the formation of the startup B3i Service AG, which aims to create a Blockchain trading platform for a value-added chain of the entire insurance industry.