Cognizant has teamed up with 14 Indian insurance firms on the development of a blockchain solution for cross-company data sharing.

The IT multinational said in a statement on Monday that the platform was designed to allow firms to securely share data with lower risk of data breaches and fraud, while offering greater efficiency, better record-keeping and faster turnaround than with traditional methods.

Built on R3's Corda distributed ledger platform and hosted on Microsoft Azure, the solution, which was developed last year, is a collaborative effort between Cognizant and a consortium of insurers including SBI Life, ICICI Prudential Life, Max Life Insurance, HDFC Life and Kotak Life.

Anand Pejawar, president of operations at SBI Life, said that the decentralized and immutable nature of blockchains, which provide the ability to combat document tampering and false billing, are opening up new models for insurers.

Pejawar continued:

"Blockchain has the potential to catalyze a significant shift in the insurance industry's underlying technology and business models."

By storing data on blockchain, the statement adds, insurers will see benefits including reduced operating costs and duplication of processes.

Arun Baid, global delivery head for insurance at Cognizant, commented, "As a shared source of truth, blockchain opens numerous possibilities for insurers to collaborate more effectively and transparently, make better informed decisions, and create greater trust and accountability, while disintermediating data aggregators."

Paperwork image via Shutterstock

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