Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty SE (AGCS), a German financial services giant, has announced that they are creating a blockchain-based ecosystem to enable internationalinsurance transactions for its corporate customers.

Experimentations with blockchain technology

Allianz is creating a token-based blockchain system to streamline the cross-border insurance transactions for its corporate consumers, as reported by Forbes on 8^thAugust. A source from Allianz said that the company is still testing the system, although the basic core infrastructure of the said ecosystem has been experimented and already built.

Additionally, the source said that Allianz will review and analyse the money transfers with a narrow scope, and only for a short period of time to prove the analysis. He said:

“AGCS is further exploring blockchain technology to simplify and accelerate cross-border insurance payments for its corporate customers. A project team is in the advanced stages of development for a token-based electronic payment system to allow for frictionless, transparent and instantaneous money transfers for a range of different types [of] payments.”

Controversial stance on crypto assets

It is worth noting that, Andreas Utermann, the CEO of Allianz Global Investors called cryptocurrencies to be “outlawed” in December last year, adding that he was “personally surprised that regulators haven’t stepped in harder.”

On the contrary, Christian Weishuber from Allianz said that last summer, the company was exploring the potentials of the crypto-insurance space, saying, “insurance for cryptocurrency storage will be a big opportunity as digital assets are becoming more relevant, important and prevalent.”

At the same time, State Farm, a United Sates insurance giant and United Services Automobile Association, a military-affiliated bank, were collaborating to test a blockchain-based substitute solution with data that was real insurance claims, to streamline and automate the process in insurance claims.

Mike Fields, the State Farm Innovation Executive, commented on the large scale of subrogation claims, and added to how streamlining the process would be beneficial, saying:“In 2018 alone, the total amount of dollars demanded and issued through the subrogation process was over $9.6 Billion for all insurance carriers. You can imagine the time and resources required to complete these transactions.”