The German financial services firm, Allianz, has announced that it is looking to create its token similar to JP Morgan and Facebook, intending to use this token to streamline international payments in its insurance business.

A spokesman for Allianz told Forbes “Allianz is further exploring Blockchain technology to simplify and accelerate cross-border insurance payments for its corporate customers. A project team is in advanced stages of development for a token-based electronic payment system to allow frictionless, transparent and instantaneous money transfers for a range of different types of payments”.

Allianz is working with Adjoint, which is a US Boston-based company also offering a range of treasury management services using Blockchain technology.

Having a token/digital currency would enable Allianz, in its insurance division, to use Blockchain technology by employing Smart Contracts to process claims without the need for human intervention. Interestingly, in the USA, an insurance company called State Farm and the United Services Automobile Association are looking at how they can use Blockchain technology to automate and streamline the payment between insurers (subrogation process) for insurance claims. There were over $9.2 billion of payments made between insurance companies in 2018, so any way to improve/reduce costs, time delays and generally, improve the efficiency of payments will be welcome by the insurance industry.

The global value of the insurance market is €3,655 billion ($4,087 billion), so the target market for firms looking to improve the efficiency in the payment of premiums and claims is substantial - hence the interest in organisations looking at how technology like Blockchain can be used.