On Saturday (1 September 2018), People's Insurance Company of China (PICC), one of the world’s largest insurance companies (with $126 billion in assets) announced that it was going to embrace blockchain technology with the help of VeChain and DNV GL (a global quality assurance and risk management company).

VeChain, which has been around since 2015, “aims to connect blockchain technology to the real world by providing a comprehensive governance structure, a robust economic model, and IoT integration.” VeChain’s public blockchain, VeChainThor, “provides enterprises with the tools, securities, and governance to properly control their assets while collaborating across multiple verticals, industries, and even countries.”

VeChain was the first blockchain company to make a deal with the Chinese government in late 2016, when it was named the blockchain technology partner of the regional government of Guiyang. It has also an impressive number of partnerships, one of the most important of which is the one with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

As for PICC, its “principal businesses are motor vehicle insurance, commercial property insurance, homeowners insurance, cargo insurance, liability insurance, accidental injury insurance, short-term health insurance, marine hull insurance, agriculture insurance, credit & surety insurance etc., and the related reinsurance business as well as investments permitted under the relevant laws and regulations of the PRC.”

Legacy claim management systems produce a huge amount of paper trails on insufficiently validated data (from the policy underwriting process). Due to the “inefficiencies within data collection, verification, and auditing cause policies,” policies are underwritten for “bad actors”, which leads to insurance premiums going up for all policy owners. PICC is hoping that using blockchain technology will bring benefits such as reduced turnaround time, lower premiums, better fraud prevention, improved KYC compliance, and a nicer claim experience.

By partnering with DNV GL and VeChain, PICC expects to provide assured blockchain solutions that “protect user data, distribute ownership, and enhance existing artificial intelligence.”

Sunny Lu, Co-founder at VeChain said:

“Collaborating with PICC expands our business within the insurance industry. We are confident we will provide great service and products to PICC, together with DNV GL.”

PICC says it chose VeChain because of “their existing solutions with DNV GL catering to real problems within businesses and governments.”

George Kang, CEO at DNV GL Business Assurance Greater China Region added:

“The role DNV GL plays is to ensure data integrity from the business operation perspective. In conjunction with VeChainThor Platform, we will provide a robust digital trust platform to assist PICC with enhanced data management and efficient data processing.”

According to the press release, VeChain will initially provide solutions for pre-selected use cases that enable PICC to expand upon the base technology and “DNV GL’s globally-approved role as an independent third-party assurer for all provisions will aid in the firm’s expansion in blockchain-based solutions.”

At press time (15:15 UTC), according to data from CryptoCompare, VET is trading at $0.01774, down 3.32% in the past 24-hour period, but up almost 19% since its price a month ago ($0.01491).

Featured Image Courtesy of VeChain Foundation