Logistics Giant Maersk Starts Using Blockchain Platform for Maritime Insurance

Transport and logistics company AP Moller-Maersk (a.k.a. Maersk) has begun using blockchain platform Insurwave for maritime insurance, Seatrade Maritime News reports Friday, May 25.

Developed by EY and Guardtime, Insurwave uses distributed ledger technology from cloud platform Microsoft Azure and follows global insurance standards. At the beginning of May, Microsoft Azure had announced the release of its blockchain app creation service, Azure Blockchain Workbench.

In the first year, Maersk will use Insurwave to manage 1,000 vessels and support over 500,000 digital ledger transactions. Lars Henneberg, the head of risk and insurance at Maersk, told Seatrade Maritime News that since, “marine insurance takes up considerable resources for us:”

“Moving it to [Microsoft Azure] is helping us automate manual processes and alleviate a range of inefficiencies and frictional costs in the way we have used to trade marine insurance.”

The Insurwave blockchain platform is now being commercially used by Willis Towers Watson, XL Catlin, and MS Amlin as well as Maersk. EY, Guardtime, and Microsoft plan on widening the platform to include marine cargo, global logistics, and the aviation and energy sectors in the future.

Blockchain technology has been used in the insurance industry in the past - at the end of March, several global insurance companies formed a blockchain startup in Zurich, and in April, international insurance firm Marsh announced a commercial blockchain solution for proof-of-insurance with IBM as a partner.