IBM and ANZ Unveil a Proof-of-Concept For Blockchain Solutions in Insurance Sector
The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) and tech giant IBM has recently unveiled a blockchain platform that helps to simplify and streamline the process of data transfers and premium payments between the insurers and brokers.
These two companies have developed this solution in coordination with financial services firm Suncorp New Zealand. These companies together have released a complete proof-of-concept whitepaper explaining how the technology works and how it can be very useful to the entire insurance sector in totality.
In the press release, Paul Goodwin, ANZ Managing Director Institutional NZ, said: “Reconciling policy information and premium payments made by a broker to an insurer on behalf of customers is a slow and painful process.”
He also added: “The blockchain solution will be much more efficient for the industry as well as being very secure. As a ‘single source of truth’, it will provide greater visibility throughout the process, remove uncertainty and help make response times faster. This technology will work with existing industry solutions to capture relevant information; ensuring payments can be forecast and made without the need for reconciliation.”
This new blockchain solution will work simultaneously alongside the existing system while trying it to make it more efficient. Currently, the insurer and the broker needs to share multiple documents in order to get quote, buy products or renew existing policies. The blockchain technology will capture this information from the system itself and share it with the desired party reducing the effort and time required for this tedious process.
Moreover, instead of brokers collecting bulk payments and sending to individual insurers by matching their policies, the blockchain technology will automatically allocate receipts for bulk payments down to the individual policy/invoice level. The decentralized technology will also automatically generate reports and analytics that can be easily accessed by insurers and brokers.
Mike Smith, Managing Director, IBM New Zealand said: “Distributed ledger technologies are driving major efficiencies across many industries by enabling previously complex, manual processes to operate in real time with full transparency.”
He further added: “IBM used design-led thinking principles and practices to reinvent the business processes behind intermediated insurance at ANZ. The result is an interoperable network that could not only decrease policy costs and improve customer service, but also build a foundation for the introduction of other transformative technologies, such as artificial intelligence.”
Tim Buckett, Chief Financial Officer at Suncorp New Zealand also stated that “We’re always looking at ways to generate operational efficiencies and the Proof of Concept was an exciting way to test whether a technology solution can speed up the reconciliation process for insurance premium payments, while at the same time improving the customer experience for policyholders and our business partners.”