AIG partners on blockchain pilot focused on policy creation

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Pedestrians walk past the American International Group Inc. (AIG) headquarters office in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2016.

AIG, IBM and Standard Chartered Bank have piloted a new collaborative insurance policy leveraging blockchain.

Commercial policies written in the UK, U.S., Singapore and Kenya were converted into a single “smart contract" providing a shared view of policy data and documentation in real time. Stakeholders gained visibility into coverage and premium payment at the local and master levels, as well as automated notifications to network participants following payments. Brokers, auditors and other third partiers are also included in the chain, giving them a customized view of policy and payment data and documentation.

“Our pilot proves blockchain has a powerful role to play in the future of insurance,” said Rob Schimek, CEO of commercial insurance business at AIG. “Any technology, including blockchain, that can increase trust and transparency for an industry whose pillars are built on that, should be fully explored.”

The contract was built by IBM using the blockchain technology Hyperledger Fabric. The companies selected multinational risk transfer even though it is a complicated area, in order to get a handle on the breadth of the technology.

"By creatively leveraging smart contracts to help address tough regulatory requirements across different markets, we are seeing the enormous impact blockchain can have to improve efficiency and open up new business models," said Mary Wieck, IBM's GM of insurance said.

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Blockchain Distributed ledger technology Real-time data Policy adminstration AIG IBM
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