First marine insurance blockchain platform live

Maersk contributed to the development of Insurwave as a pilot client and is continuing on the platform with its marine hull portfolio.    The world’s first marine insurance blockchain platform officially has launched.
   Insurwave, the platform to support marine hull insurance, was built by a joint venture between EY and Guardtime, in collaboration with A.P. Moller – Maersk, ACORD, Microsoft, MS Amlin, Willis Towers Watson and XL Catlin.
   Insurwave connects clients, brokers, insurers and third parties to distributed common ledgers that capture data about identities, risks and exposures and integrates the data with insurance contracts.
   The platform allows for claims to be paid in hours and premiums to be agreed to and settled in seconds.
   EY previously explained in a report it released on Insurwave, titled, “Better-working insurance: moving blockchain from concept to reality,” that the marine insurance industry is well-suited for a blockchain-enabled solution because of the industry’s complex international ecosystem, with multiple parties, various jurisdictions, high transaction volumes and significant levels of reconciliation.
   Maersk contributed to the development of the blockchain technology as a pilot client and is continuing on the platform with its marine hull portfolio.
   “Operating around 350 owned container vessels across the world, marine insurance takes up considerable resources for us,” Lars Henneberg, head of risk and insurance at A.P. Moller – Maersk, said. “Moving it to this platform is helping us automate manual processes and alleviate a range of inefficiencies and frictional costs in the way we have used to trade marine insurance.”
   The platform is relevant beyond marine and can be applied to any commercial or specialty line of business with high-value assets.
   Looking ahead, Insurwave is expected to be rolled out to other types of business insurance for the marine cargo, global logistics, aviation and energy sectors.