Insurance Market, Singapore's first fully online and automated insurance platform, will take the lead in the development of a new global eco system for insurance that will tap the full power of smart contracts and blockchain technology.
Insurance Market will act as sponsor and lead a group of insurance companies and distributors that will participate in the further development and roll-out of this pilot programme.
The programme aims to drive down the cost of insurance significantly, improve the availability of more types and more granular insurance, provide full access to anyone anywhere and make the claims process fully automated, according to a company statement.
CEO of Insurance Market, Otbert de Jong said: “Blockchain technology and smart contracts have a lot of potential, but at the same time there are still a lot of hurdles to be taken in order to capitalise on the opportunities that they bring,”
“The pilot will not result in revolutionary overnight change, but use the current full vertical platform as operated by Insurance Market and its insurance partners as a starting point and merge in and replace inefficient processes with more efficient, decentralised, independent and distributed ones.”
Partner selection is currently underway with the company expecting to make final announcements on cornerstone participants over the next few months. The final selection of partners will also be determined by the take up of a planned initial coin/token offering (ICO) planned for the 2nd quarter of this year by the potential partners in the eco system.
Insurance Market and partners will operate out of Singapore but aim to make the eco system an international one with particular focus on the Asean region.
Insurance Market’s parent company Insurance Market Group will sponsor a crowd sale of the tokens that will be used by participants on the platform. This includes manufacturers such as insurance companies, distributors such as brokers or aggregators and also customers. The platform will be primarily aimed at retail and SME insurance.
CTO of Insurance Market, Nelius Strydom, said: “We’re very pleased with the support that we are experiencing from all the stakeholders. It makes this a collaborative effort to create an equitable and accessible platform that brings benefits to all,”
“As a fully direct and online platform, customers will enjoy a truly seamless digital journey; without the need to download, mail or even proof anything. With the new innovative products and technology, distributors can fully focus on the user experience and insurance companies can use the analytics for product optimisation and new product development. Customers will have full control over their data and can expect a marked reduction in the cost of insurance.”
