Insurtech giant ZhongAn touts blockchain’s transformational power, signs up over 100 hospitals to improve claims processing

ZhongAn Tech’s chief is on a mission and believes that blockchain, the distributed ledger technology behind cryptocurrencies, will play a “tremendous role” in transforming China’s centuries-old insurance sector.

“Insurance is backed by statistics and blockchain will help to connect that massive and varied data,” said Chen Wei, the tech unit chief of China’s largest online insurer ZhongAn Online Property & Casualty Insurance. “It will be used to manage risk and improve pricing.”

Chen said the company already has data-sharing agreements with over 100 hospitals in China to streamline record verification and automatic claims.

“Insurance sales used to rely on agents and individual sales people, however younger generations prefer making online purchases,” Chen said. “Insurance clients no longer need to file paper documents as proof, instead they can just say when and which hospital they attended.”

ZhongAn Tech is the specialised technology incubator of ZhongAn, China’s first truly digital insurer founded by Alibaba Group chairman Jack Ma Yun, Tencent Holdings chairman Pony Ma Huateng and Ping An Insurance chairman Peter Ma Mingzhe in 2013. ZhongAn Tech now serves about 10 Chinese insurers, Chen said, helping them to better tailor their services and improve risk analysis.