R3 brought its blockchain research to Bermuda to demonstrate how distributed ledger technology could transform the way the island nation and the businesses incorporated there operate.
Brokers, insurers, reinsurers and financial services organizations heard Tim Grant, chief executive officer of R3 Lab and Research Centre, and consultant Todd Bault, speak about distributed ledgers at the ILS Bermuda Convergence conference in early November, according to The Royal Gazette.
R3 gave a real-time demonstration of blockchain technology, as well. “We had brokers, underwriters, Bank of New York Mellon, who are a big trustee, the Bermuda Monetary Authority, people from underwriting to operations on the reinsurance side, and guys from the advisory companies,” said Stafford Lowe, head of human capital management at R3. “We wanted to take an industry loss warranty on a real ledger. So we had a broker screen, an underwriter screen, and a trustee’s screen. We followed it through the process and saw the numbers change on everyone’s screen. This was a representation of three people’s very separate views on things. But the most important thing was that whenever an action was performed, you saw something get written to the ledger. That really resonated with people.”
He added: “It was a real example. It was designed to be a starting point. This was something we knocked together in two weeks; imagine if we built this thing together, and where we could get very quickly.”
Who is interested in Bermuda?
“There are a handful of reinsurance companies here who are genuinely interested in what we are doing. We hope they join R3, and see this as an opportunity to gather the Bermuda market together as a global statement of intent to remain at the leading edge of the industry,” he said.
“New technologies like this are going to be built collaboratively, and Bermuda has always been a wonderful place for collaboration.”
In the states, R3 has faced headwinds as Goldman Sachs left the consortium, with reports surfacing that Morgan Stanley followed soon thereafter.
First appeared at CCN
