Using blockchain and smart contracts for a more accessible, more efficient and more transparent way of buying and managing insurance
SINGAPORE, Feb. 23, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Insurance Market, Singapore’s first fully online and automated insurance platform, will take the lead in the development of a new global ecosystem for insurance that will harbor the full power of smart contracts and blockchain technology.
Insurance Market will act as sponsor and lead of a group of insurance companies and distributors that will participate in the further development and roll-out of this pilot program. The program 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.
“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,” says Otbert de Jong, CEO of Insurance Market. “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 and the company expects to be able 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 ICO (initial coin/token offering) planned for Q2 2018 by the potential partners in the ecosystem.
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.
“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,” says Insurance Market CTO Nelius Strydom. “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.”
Insurance Market and partners will operate out of Singapore but aim to make the ecosystem an international one with a particular focus on the Asean region.
About Insurance Market
Insurance Market (IM) was founded in 2014 to bring a bit of Zen to the chaotic world of general insurance in Singapore. Licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), IM are the first online insurance broker to serve customers by bridging the distribution gap with insurers. To do so, IM provide every customer online with as much information as possible to make well-informed insurance choices based on price, service and policy conditions in an easy, simple and instant way. For more information, please visit https://insurancemarket.sg
Media Contacts
Otbert E. de Jong
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: +65-85260587
