IBM is working with China Construction Bank (Asia) on a blockchain-powered bancassurance project in Hong Kong.
IBM says that bancassurance, where a bank and insurance firm form a distribution partnership, is sometimes blighted by delays in data transmission or incomplete information.
Big Blue's blockchain platform will help tackle this by giving CCB (Asia) and other parties a shared view of required policy data in real-time, reducing the need for time-consuming status checks.
A shared, immutable ledger used for recording transactions will help establish accountability and transparency among network participants, states IBM, enabling CCB (Asia) and its partner insurers to deliver the services more efficiently.
The system is currently being tested by the bank and it insurance partners and could go live in the third quarter.
Guo Zhipeng, deputy chief executive, CCB (Asia), say: "After the successful launch of this blockchain-enabled bancassurance project, we plan to extend our experience to other insurance partners in order to optimise our overall bancassurance business."