Linux Foundation & AAIS launch openIDL
The Linux Foundation and the American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS), announced the launch of openIDL, the Open Insurance Data Link platform and project. The platform will reduce the cost of regulatory reporting for insurance carriers, provide a standardized data repository for analytics and a connection point for third parties to deliver new applications to members.
openIDL brings together insurance companies such as The Hanover and Selective Insurance Group, along with technology and service providers Chainyard, KatRisk and MOBI to advance a common distributed ledger platform for sharing information and business processes across the insurance ecosystem. The first use case for the openIDL network is regulatory reporting in the Property and Casualty (P&C) insurance industry. Initially built with guidance from AAIS, an insurance advisory organization and statistical reporting agent, “openIDL leverages the trust and integrity inherent in distributed ledger networks.”
“From the very beginning, we recognized the enormous transformative potential for openIDL and distributed ledger technology. We are happy to work with the Linux Foundation to help affect meaningful, positive change for the insurance ecosystem.” – AAIS CEO Ed Kelly.
Insurance sectors beyond P&C are expected to be supported by openIDL in the coming months, and use cases will expand beyond regulatory. A “Flood Working Group” has already been assembled to develop use case catastrophe modeling in support of insurers and regulators. openIDL is also collaborating on joint software development activities, building upon Hyperledger Fabric, Hadoop, Node.js, MongoDB and other open technologies to implement a “harmonized data store,” enabling data privacy and accountable operations.
The combined packaging of this software is called an “openIDL Node,” approved and certified by developers working on this project, and every member of the network will be running that software in order to participate in the openIDL network. Additional joint software development for analytics and reporting are also included in the openIDL Linux Foundation network.
“We’re delighted to join openIDL with AAIS and the Linux Foundation. It is strategically important for Selective to be part of industry efforts to innovate our regulatory reporting and use distributed ledgers.” – Michael H. Lanza, executive vice president, general counsel & chief compliance officer of Selective Insurance Group, Inc.
“The Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) is delighted to join with the Linux Foundation, AAIS, and insurance industry leaders in founding OpenIDL. Data sharing and digital collaboration in business ecosystems via industry consortium ledgers like OpenIDL will drive competitive advantage for many years to come.” – Chris Ballinger, founder and CEO, MOBI.
“AAIS, and the insurance industry in general, are trailblazers in their contribution and collaboration to these technologies. Open governance networks like openIDL can now accelerate innovation and development of new product and service offerings for insurance providers and their customers. We’re excited to host this work.” – Mike Dolan, senior vice president and general manager of Projects at the Linux Foundation.
“The openIDL platform will serve to increase access to state of the art catastrophe modelling data from KatRisk and others, serving to reduce the friction required to house and run said models. KatRisk expects all parties, from direct insurance entities to regulators, to see an increase in data quality, reliability and ease of access as catastrophe modelling output is effectively streamed across openIDL nodes to generate automated reports and add to or create internal business intelligence databases. If catastrophe models are about owning your own risk then the openIDL platform is an effective tool to better understand and manage that risk.” – Brandon Katz, executive vice president, member, KatRisk.
