Deloitte will leverage its industry-leading digital capabilities to help the RiskBlock Alliance implement and test multiple products that will be brought to market by the end of 2018.

Deloitte will also help the RiskBlock Alliance expand the consortium into Canada, the first piece of a planned international expansion. Over the next few months, and with Deloitte’s strategic support, the RiskBlock Alliance will establish a legal entity in Canada and begin working with Canadian-based property-casualty and life/annuity insurers. The expansion will help the RiskBlock Alliance deliver scalable blockchain solutions across the global insurance industry.

Under this engagement, Deloitte will be responsible for the methodology, prioritization and development of a number of blockchain applications for RiskBlock Alliance members. The applications will address different aspects of the insurance transaction life cycle, ranging from underwriting to claims processing. Each new app will be provided via Canopy, the industry’s first end-to-end reusable blockchain framework, and will focus on enhancing efficiency and lowering transaction costs for the benefit of policyholders. Canopy is being built exclusively for the RiskBlock Alliance on R3’s Corda platform.

“Deloitte has established itself as a leader in blockchain and distributed ledger technology and has strong global relationships with both blockchain and insurance organizations,” said Christopher G. McDaniel, president of The Institutes RiskBlock Alliance. “It’s for those reasons that Deloitte makes an ideal collaborator for us as we build blockchain applications for the insurance industry around the world. We are excited to see what we can accomplish together.”
Deloitte has worked with the RiskBlock Alliance since its initial launch in July 2017, and today’s announcement expands its scope significantly.

“Our goal matches The Institutes’ own expectations—the platform will serve as the home base for all things insurtech for the global insurance industry in the years ahead,” said Linda Pawczuk, a principal and the financial services blockchain leader at Deloitte Consulting LLP. “At Deloitte, we have 1,500 blockchain practitioners in 33 countries across 23 industries dedicated to discovering how distributed ledger technology can improve different areas of the economy. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to broaden our role globally and begin building concrete applications for the market.”

Ted Epps, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP and insurance blockchain practice leader added: “The strategic value of the RiskBlock Alliance is its ability to connect a diverse set of insurance industry stakeholders through a shared network. The expansion effort our team at Deloitte is spearheading will accelerate the consortium’s global reach and take blockchain to the next level in the insurance industry—and financial services more broadly.”

In the past year, Deloitte has been profiled by industry analysts Constellation Research for having the most comprehensive blockchain effort of any professional services organization. It has also been recognized as a leader in providing clients with end-to-end blockchain services across innovation and ideation, strategy formulation, prototyping, and production build.

The RiskBlock Alliance is preparing to launch blockchain-based applications, including a proof of insurance application, a first notice of loss data-sharing process and a smart-contract-enabled subrogation tool. The subrogation tool will be built by Deloitte and use smart contracts to facilitate the netting of members’ payments and improve the efficiency of claims processing payment and accounting.

“The RiskBlock Alliance isn’t concerned with theoretical experiments. We’re completely focused on rapidly delivering real production applications to the industry,” continued McDaniel. “With the help of Deloitte, we’re building out a virtual blockchain application factory that members can use immediately for real business needs.”