The Theme last week was Incumbents on customer engagement.
The Theme this week is Blockchain not dead in insurance. Blockchain, or cryptocurrency is dead for many investors, but it is still a promising future for insurance.
For more about the Front Page Weekly CXO Briefing, please click here.
Incumbents embracing InsurTech is a common theme in our posts. This time, it’s about customer engagement.
Story 1: Ant’s Alipay uses blockchain to process health insurance claims in seconds
Extract, read more on Ledger Insights:
“Alipay is processing health insurance claims within seconds using a blockchain system, state-owned Securities Daily reported yesterday.
Alipay runs a free health insurance product as part of its rewards system. When users pay offline with AliPay, they earn bonus points towards the health insurance product. The plan is run with one of China’s largest life insurers Taikang Insurance. Within a month of launching in April 2017, 13 million people had signed up for the rewards program which amounts to 11% of Taikang’s online users, according to Asean Today.”
Ant Financial is the Fintech arm of Alibaba and is known for its exploration spirits. They tried to launch a mutual insurance project in October this year, but was compromised due to a rumored and undisclosed conflict of interest. One fails, keeps going with another. They certainly still have faith in blockchain.
Story 2: State Farm turns to blockchain for subrogation
Extract, read more on Digital Insurance:
“State Farm is working on a blockchain application to assist in subrogation, leveraging open-source software and in partnership with at least one other insurer.
The company’s goal is to establish whether blockchain technology can make subrogation more efficient, in particular by preventing repetitive transfers of funds back and forth between insurers.”
Subrogation is a relatively new field for applications of InsurTech and State Farm is getting a first-mover advantage.
Story 3: Australia: National Transport Insurance Partners on Blockchain for Food Safety Trial
Extract, read more on Cointelegraph:
“Australia’s National Transport Insurance (NTI) has announced it will trial a blockchain system to improve supply chain integrity for beef exports abroad. The trial was reported by local transport industry magazine Fully Loaded ATN on Dec. 10.
NTI will reportedly be partnering with BeefLedger, an Australian “integrated provenance, blockchain security and payments platform,” which combines blockchain with Internet of Things (IoT) technology to bolster product credentials across the supply chain.”
Both NTI and BeefLedger are not well known in the InsurTech community. And the alleged application is not insurance-centered. However, it’s a trial involving trans-border business, origin tracing and liability monitoring. It can be enlightening for insurance, if it pans out.
2018 is a very bad year for blockchain enthusiasts, but on the bright side, we might have entered post-bubble era just like the early 2000s. With less hype, expectation and more commitment, blockchain can still find its appropriate values.
Zarc Gin is an analyst for Warp Speed Fintech, a Fintech, especially InsurTech-focused Venture Capital based in China.
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