Generali Employee Benefits Applies Blockchain Technology to Captives

Generali Employee Benefits (GEB) and Accenture are set to provide a blockchain solution for the employee benefits industry. Through blockchain, captive insurance companies or pooling services participating in the reinsurance process will access the same data and reduce processing errors through the use of smart contracts and automated reconciliation.

GEB expects to streamline its employee benefit operating model for captive insurers, which currently offers global customers a range of local admitted employee benefits solutions such as life, short- and long-term disability, accident, and healthcare insurance. These local offerings are reinsured through Generali to captive insurer or pooling services to aid multinational corporations in centralizing their employee benefit-related insurance and financial operations.

Daniele Presutti, Accenture's insurance European practice leader, said, "Blockchain technology [allows] a reliable means of information exchange and [streamlines] previously complex, manual processes within insurance."

The final rollout follows a successful prototype inspired by B3i, a collaborative initiative of 15 global insurers and reinsurers. The prototype, completed in 2018, involved Syngenta, a leading agriculture company, along with local insurers in Spain, Switzerland, and Serbia. With the prototype, Generali aimed to disrupt the market through integrating systems, data, and processes, where the final result brought lower costs, time savings, and data-quality improvement for all stakeholders.

Fabiano Rossetto, GEB chief process officer, said, "We wanted to truly innovate and disrupt the EB market to offer smart, reliable, secure, and meaningful solutions to all our stakeholders."

"This prototype represents a step forward for GEB and for the insurance industry. The use of blockchain technology allows for a truly connected ecosystem and a seamless partnership between clients, advisers, local insurers, and Generali. Blockchain will change not only our network but the employee benefits industry as we know it," said Sergio Di Caro, GEB's CEO.