B3i, or the Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative, is a blockchain trading platform for the insurance and reinsurance industries. The Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative (B3i) is a collaboration of insurers and reinsurers formed to explore the potential of using Distributed Ledger Technologies to benefit all stakeholders in the value chain. The organization was incepted in 2016 and is currently formed of 15 members from across the globe. It is focused solely on developing and testing technical developments to serve customers better and enhance transaction efficiency, thus promoting competition. 

B3i was incorporated in Zurich on 23rd March 2018, and it is 100% owned by 18 insurance market participants around the world. More than 40 companies are involved in B3i as shareholders, customers, and community members. Recently, John Carolin had been appointed Chief Executive Officer of B3i Services AG, who had previously served as interim CEO since March 2019 after joining B3i as Chief Financial Officer in March 2018.

John has a broad range of experience in the industry, including in insurance and reinsurance and technology and entrepreneurship. He even has a profound understanding of working in South Africa, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. He has founded, led, or grown ventures that include a carbon offset platform, a retail property asset manager, and a B2B advertising marketplace.  John is determined to lead B3i as it matures into a customer-centric software development company that serves the global insurance industry, its brokers, and its customers.

“B3i will enable material time and cost savings that can only be achieved by working together as an industry rather than alone. B3i has the extraordinary advantage of being entirely owned by 17 of its customers and having already built a community of more than 40 insurers, reinsurers, brokers, and related companies.”

He continued: “I look forward to leading the B3i team as we execute on a bold vision to enable better insurance through frictionless risk transfer.”  They dream of better insurance enabled by frictionless risk transfer. Thus they aim to transform the insurance market by delivering better solutions for end consumers through faster access to insurance with less administrative cost. 

B3i is creating a better insurance industry by developing standards, protocols, and network infrastructure to remove friction in risk transfer. B3i’s shareholders and participants believe that new technologies can give end insurance consumers better and faster access to insurance. By acting together, they optimize and automate market-wide processes to generate significant savings in time and cost that cannot be achieved by insurers or intermediaries operating alone.  

The B3i team has created software applications for their clients that provide them with various solutions accessible through their network. Their vision is to see a variety of applications for their clients to use, which will help reduce friction across the value chain and improve the quality of data on which the market is so reliant. 

They use Blockchain as their tool to achieve their goals. This not only offers efficiencies in existing business processes but will catalyze the development of new and innovative business models. They have been continuously reviewing new technologies that can help deliver their vision, especially where they can combine to create compelling outcomes in our network. We all know how data is at the center of the insurance industry. Still, legacy products, processes, and technologies degrade data becoming an administrative burden while unable to cope with the exponentially growing complexity and volume of data.

Thus they use a platform built on Distributed Ledger Technology to eliminate the duplication of data across applications, systems, and parties. DLT provides a “single source of truth,” thus removing the need for traditional data transformation or integrations.

DLT guarantees that counterparties see a single indisputable view of shared data which obviates wasteful and error-prone processes such as reconciliations. Shared applications that address common industry problems will provide a platform for individual participants to execute their digital transformation strategies.

Thus, using Blockchain technology that has been shaping how the world functions, digitalizing the insurance market is a definite win. 

Benefits of blockchain technology in the insurance industry

Due to the technology’s advantages, blockchain technology is gaining traction in the insurance industry. In the insurance industry, Blockchain has several uses, including:

Fraud detection and risk mitigation: By transferring insurance claims to an immutable ledger, blockchain technology can assist the insurance business in removing typical causes of fraud.

Property and casualty (P&C) insurance: A shared ledger and insurance policies performed via smart contracts can enhance the efficiency of property and casualty insurance.

Thanks to blockchain technology, medical records can be cryptographically secured and exchanged across health providers, enhancing interoperability in the health insurance industry.

Reinsurance: By using smart contracts to secure reinsurance contracts on the Blockchain, blockchain technology can streamline the transfer of information and payments between insurers and reinsurers.

Life insurance: By replacing the human process of filing claims with an automated system built on a blockchain ledger, blockchain technology can relieve family members of the burden of filing a death claim.