Maersk introduces blockchain to the marine insurance sphere

Marine insurance is one of the oldest and least effective categories of insurance, says Sean Crawford, head of insurance at Ernst & Young consulting firm. In his opinion, this 30-billion branch is an excellent platform for understanding how one can use block chain. The largest container shipping company, Maersk, completed a 20-week blockage testing for marine insurance.

The Danish company worked in cooperation with Ernst & Young, Microsoft, Willis Towers Watson and several insurers. Maersk used KSI, a block system developed by Guardtime. The platform was designed to simplify the audit of the supply chain and improve the exchange of data in real time, and also to allow different parties to settle the terms of insurance premiums more timely. Lars Henneberg, head of risk and insurance at Maersk, said: "Insurance operations today are too tiring. The blockchain technology can propel the industry to development". 

Bill Pieroni, head of the ACORD, a group of insurance standards, said that the blockchain "can drastically reduce time, cost and risk throughout the value chain of insurance." Although the partner companies have so far only participated in the maritime project, Ernst & Young intends to transfer the technology to automobile insurance.

source: reuters.com