Global insurance giant MetLife becomes 60th company to join R3 blockchain consortium

MetLife, one of the world’s largest insurers, has announced that it has joined the R3 blockchain consortium, which now includes 60 of the world’s largest financial institutions.

Insurance giant MetLife is the latest financial institution to join a private blockchain consortium led by New York-based firm R3.

According to the statement, MetLife will collaborate and exchange ideas with other R3 members to explore the potential application of blockchain technology in the insurance industry, especially in terms of how distributed ledgers can simplify various corporate activities such as business processing, policy management, customer payments, new investment management and income distribution.

Marty Lippert, executive vice president and head of global technology and operations at MetLife, said:

“R3’s work has demonstrated how blockchain technology can disrupt the way business is currently done.”

He also said MetLife is the first multinational insurer and the 60th member to join the global alliance.

Corda, the distributed ledger software platform developed by R3 and its members, will continue to serve as a shared private ledger for recording and processing financial agreements between approved members.

R3 CEO David Rutter spoke about the alliance’s growing membership, which is now seeing an influx of non-bank institutions.

“The addition of a significant insurer like MetLife is testament to the growing interest in distributed ledger technology within the non-bank financial services community.”

David Rutter, CEO of R3

He further stated that R3 has been leading the development of the financial technology industry in the past.

Our alliance is currently the largest of its kind to ever emerge in the financial technology space, with some of the world’s largest banks and financial institutions collaborating to deliver cutting-edge solutions that can be applied to the benefit of all end users and their clients.

It is worth noting that MetLife is not the first insurer to join R3. Hong Kong-based AIA Group joined the R3 alliance some time ago. The pan-Asian insurer, which is also the largest listed company in the region, joined R3 in early June 2016.

R3’s global network of partners, which now includes MetLife, will collaborate across R3’s labs and research centers to research and realize the potential of blockchain technology in the financial services industry.