The largest player in the insurance industry, MetLife is jumping on the blockchain bandwagon, it seems. The US giant, according to press release by Nasdaq, looks to utilize blockchain to completely disrupt its claims process.
MetLife may choose to utilize the Ethereum blockchain to revamp its insurance claims process. What is known for now is that the project was created and is being run at the company’s incubator in Singapore, called LumenLab. For the pilot run, the Lab is partnering with NTUC Income and Singapore Press Holdings.
Nasdaq reports that a current problem that needs to be solved in the insurance business is the fact that families with recently deceased relatives or loved ones often forget to actually file for life insurance claims. The other problem may be the fact that these families didn’t even know that the deceased has life-insurance at all. This “miscommunication” between the claimant and the insurer is not beneficial to either sides, so a solution is being created.
What MetLife does is very interesting, as the trial run simply looks at obituaries published in Singapore Press Holdings. Then the insurer takes the National Registration Identity Card number from the death certificate of the deceased and puts it into the blockchain. The other partner in the project, NTUC Income then seeks the number for any records that this person had insurance policy. If such match is found, the family of the deceased is notified and an email is sent to MetLife to begin the insurance claims process.
It’s very promising that such a player in the insurance business as MetLife is turning to blockchain to resolve some of the most pressing issues in the industry, essentially embracing the technology in never-thought-before processes such as the insurance claims one.