Maersk partners with Microsoft, EY on maritime insurance blockchain

The group has created a blockchain platform built on Microsoft Azure technology for shippers, brokers, customers and third parties in the maritime insurance industry that is slated for rollout in 2018.    Danish shipping conglomerate A.P. Møller-Maersk A/S, parent of world’s-largest ocean carrier Maersk Line, has partnered with consultancy EY, data security firm Guardtime, Microsoft and four other firms to develop a blockchain-based marine insurance platform.
   Built on Microsoft Azure global cloud technology, the platform has undergone a 20-week “proof of concept” to ensure its initial phased rollout will begin in 2018, the group said in a statement.
   According to EY, the platform “connects clients, brokers, insurers and third parties to distributed common ledgers that capture data about identities, risk and exposures, and integrates this information with insurance contracts.”
   EY says that the platform’s capabilities include the ability to create and maintain asset data from multiple parties, link data to policy contracts, receive information, transactions and payments and validate notifications or loss data.
   “Blockchain’s potential to transform the insurance ecosystem has always been clear. What we have done is to move forward from potential to reality,” said Shaun Crawford, EY global insurance leader. “This solution is the first to apply blockchain’s transparency, security and standardization to marine insurance and is ready for commercial use. We look forward to deploying this technology across the marine insurance industry and are exploring how these findings and insights will be applied to other specialty insurance markets and beyond.”
   The platform strives to increase transparency, compliance and accuracy in the marine insurance industry, particularly through blockchain technology. 
   “It is a priority for us to leverage technology to streamline and automate our interaction with the insurance market. Insurance transactions are currently far too tedious and frictional,” said Lars Henneberg, head of risk and insurance at A.P. Møller-Maersk. “The distance between risk and capital is simply too far. Blockchain technology has the potential to facilitate the desired development that is long overdue.”
   According to EY, insurers can utilize the platform to “improve their capital and gain efficiencies, with increased transparency and reduced manual data entry or reconciliation and administration costs.”
   The four other firms involved in the partnership are ACORD, MS Amlin, Willis Towers Watson and XL Catlin.