On Tuesday, the B3i insurance blockchain platform announced that it landed a contract to use blockchain to manage nuclear reinsurance for six European nuclear pools. Twenty-one global insurers own B3i.
Consider when you get your car insured, third party insurance is usually a requirement. It’s one thing for an insurer to pay out for the third party element of a car crash, but something else if it’s a nuclear disaster. It could easily bankrupt a single insurer.
Hence insurance for nuclear risks is pooled, spreading the risk across the insurance industry. But it goes further. Usually, there’s a nuclear pool for a country. And each country pool will provide reinsurance to other country pools, spreading the risk globally.
That’s a lot of interconnectedness. And blockchain is a technology that helps make multiparty transactions more efficient by sharing data rather than constantly reconciling separate data stores.
B3i landed a project to use its Fluidity blockchain platform to manage the reinsurance contracts between the nuclear pools for France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom and the Nordics (Sweden and Finland). The initial scope covers the risk placement and binding or the confirmation of insurance before a policy is issued.
One can imagine the need to confirm insurance cover is in place for a nuclear site is invariably mandated. So a real-time system will help with compliance as well as risk analysis, given the data is up-to-date.
The plan is to launch for January 1 renewals, and in the medium term, technical accounting and claims functionality will be added.
“Their experts have patiently listened and worked with us during the procurement process and truly understand our requirements,” said Caj Weckström, the Pools’ Project Manager and Nordic Pool Manager.
“Together with their analytical approach, we are confident that B3i will be able to design an innovative solution for us. Given its scalability, it could also be available to the 28 international pools that exist today and others that will form in future as the civil nuclear industry develops into new countries.”
B3i’s platform uses R3’s Corda enterprise blockchain technology. Late last year, the company announced the first closing of its Series B round of funding and the addition of Türk Reasürans as an investor.
The B3i shareholders are Achmea, Aegon, Africa Re, Ageas, Allianz, AXA, China Pacific Insurance, Deutsche Rück, Generali, Hannover Re, IRB Brasil Re, Liberty Mutual, Mapfre Re, Munich Re, SBI Group, SCOR, Swiss Re, Tokio Marine, Türk Reasürans, VIG Re, and Zurich Insurance Group.
