#Ep. 29: Assessing blockchain for insurance with Takaful Emarat and Addenda

About this Episode

Episode 29 is here! Ahmed sits down with Walid Daniel Dib from Addenda and Vivek Bhalla from Takaful Emarat.

What is insurance and what challenges does the industry face?
Ahmed starts off by questioning the two guests about what we mean by insurance and the challenges that the industry faces. Vivek touches on the concept of how sharing should be closely related to this industry and how it is a social responsibility to share risk, a principle held at Takaful Emarat.
Being described as an industry still with a stone age mentality, main challenges include: very low digital processes, engagement with customers is low, and fundamentally it’s all manual process orientated.

Collaboration is also a key challenge that Walid pointed citing that insurance companies find It harder to come together and would rather sit on their heaps of data and not doing anything with it.

Can blockchain help? And if so, how?
Well of course blockchain would be able to help, and Walid and Vivek cite many examples, both theoretical and practical applications that are currently being deployed. Do tune in to find out more!

Going corporate!
Walid cites the importance of private chains and what they offer over public blockchains, particularly in a corporate environment. Fun fact, Walid used to be a bitcoin maximalist before going corporate!
Part of this conversation entertained many questions such as: how to maintain trust in networks operated by, let’s say, a group of insurance companies? Another question is then, who is responsible for authenticating all this data and how is it structured? Do insurance companies have to remove all their old systems away? Ah yes, the burning questions needed for innovation to really happen are explored too!

Ok, but why does this all matter? How will I, as an end user, see any change?
Ahmed then steers the conversation to see why this all really matters and what the implications are for both end users and insurance companies.

Walid and Vivek cite further examples, both within a typical insurance transaction (that is usually coordinated between many parties), and also enterprises currently developing proof of concepts in industries like trade finance.

With authenticated data processed seamlessly and less reliance on manual processes, the biggest implication for end users are the cost of premiums should significantly drop.

B3I
B3I is a blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative that provides insurance solutions on a blockchain platform offering opportunities for efficiency, growth and quality across the value chain to benefit all participants including end customers.
This industry initiative is what Takaful Emarat is a part of to help realise the innovation blockchain brings to the insurance industry.

Lets talk convergence
Ahmed asks how AI, IoT and blockchain are able to come together to be able to provide far better value than what each technology can provide on its own. Yes, there will be an inflection point soon! Listen in on what the guests had to say.

The relationship between a start-up and a traditional player
We can see how amazed Ahmed is to see how a traditional player within this stone age like insurance industry is working closely with Walid’s start-up, and helping to drive innovation.

Walid first starts off talking about his experience in the Fintech Hive, a leading fintech accelerator in Dubai, and how their talks with traditional insurance players surprised them as they saw local players being a bit more open compared to the international insurance firms with regional offices. Vivek and Walid both talk about their experiences working with and engaging the regulators and ultimately describing how their partnership formed and how their work is evolving!

Well what an episode that was, do make sure to tune in as we talked about the above and much more!

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