The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) along with tech partner IBM has successfully presented a concept wherein blockchain technology is used to increase both the efficiency and speed of data transfers. Moreover, the payments are more transparent to both brokers and insurers in the industry.
The blockchain solution, developed alongside lead New Zealand insurance provider Suncorp intends to eliminate the current issues of the insurance market where an individual’s payments for the insurance company come from a broker who initially sold the insurance. This process, as stated by ANZ executive Paul Goodwin, is painfully slow.
Using IBM’s blockchain technology, the Hyperledger Fabric, showed significant improvements in various stages of the process. The technology allowed for more efficient data transfer in all stages of the insurance process, most notably, authorization and reconciliation. Furthermore, bulk payments were automatically allocated. Finally, replacing manual reporting with automatic reporting further boosted the efficiency.
The blockchain solution serves to make policies cheaper and drastically improve customer service. According to Mike Smith, the IBM New Zealand managing director, the introduction of blockchain technology allows for other technologies, such as artificial intelligence to be implemented in the future to further improve customer service and increase efficiency.