Blockchain Could ‘Revolutionize’ Industry: China Ex-Insurance Regulator Vice Chair

The former vice chairman of China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) Wei Yingning has said Blockchain technology could revolutionize China’s multi-trillion yuan insurance industry.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the China Blockchain Application Research Center in Shanghai Sunday, Yingning said Blockchain held promise for the industry which the Internet failed to deliver.

Growth in life insurance alone last year reached 55 percent, with premium income touching 2.9 tln yuan.

“In the modern insurance industry, the cost of auditing accounts for 30 percent or even 40 percent of the total. Even so, the ratio of insurance fraud in China is still not small. Therefore, the insurance industry is looking closely at Blockchain technology,” he stated in translated comments.

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As China becomes more deeply connected to Blockchain, major initiatives are underway to incorporate the technology in various forms into financial organisms.

Ping An, China’s second-biggest insurer with assets worth 4.7 tln yuan, joined the distributed ledger technology-focussed R3 Consortium in 2016.

“If data is stored on the Blockchain, immutability will save us from contractual conflict,” Yingning continued.

“In the case of insurance claims, a smart contract will be triggered to execute provisions, thus solving the problem of compensation settlement and lower auditing costs. Blockchain can reshape the integral foundations of insurance.”