LIMRA and The Institutes announced Sept. 14 that they have formed a partnership to advance the adoption of blockchain solutions across the insurance industry through RiskBlock – the first enterprise-level blockchain consortium in the industry.

LIMRA and The Institutes say they believe industry alignment is the most critical factor in unlocking the potential of blockchain, a distributed ledger technology that provides a secure, legal record of a transaction on a decentralized network. This technology could be used in the financial services industry to lower administrative and claims processing costs, expand access to underserved markets and enable immediate issue products, LIMRA has stated.

Game-changing technology

“The key to making blockchain work is to bring together the entire industry – insurance providers, trade associations, educators, technology partners – to solve this challenge together,” says Peter Miller, CPCU, president and CEO of The Institutes. “With the combined expertise of The Institutes and LIMRA, RiskBlock will advance blockchain beyond proof-of-concept, and towards practical application of this game-changing technology across every spectrum of the insurance industry.”

“We believe, as industry trade associations, it is incumbent on us to find more efficient and economic ways of transacting business and sharing information,” said Robert Kerzner, president and CEO, LIMRA, LOMA and LL Global. “Blockchain technology offers remarkable opportunity to solve many of the challenges the insurance industry faces. Partnership between the Institutes and LIMRA is unprecedented – drawing from the strength and experience of the two organizations to serve both the life and P&C sectors.”

Inaugural meeting

The announcement follows the inaugural meeting of LIMRA’s Blockchain Advisory Council on September 7 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Attendees discussed the opportunities to leverage blockchain technology and how the industry can align around practical, collaborative solutions.