Galileo Platforms, a Hong Kong-based blockchain technology platform for the insurance industry, collaborated with Singlife Philippines, a mobile-first life insurer from Singapore, and GCash, an e-wallet in the Philippines, to launch a platform for life insurance products.

By using Galileo’s scalable cloud-based blockchain technology, the new Singlife Philippines service can potentially reach a large and mostly untapped insurance market.

The new blockchain-driven service aims to make affordable insurance available in one of the region’s most under-insured countries. It does so at a time of growing concern in the Philippines about COVID-19 and rising demand for health insurance.

“We are very pleased to partner with Galileo Platforms to launch this radically new digital service to an important yet under-insured market in the Philippines. Galileo technology is built for digital and for scale, offering easy low-cost solutions. That’s perfect for Singlife and perfect for under-insured markets such as this one.”

said Rien Hermans, President & CEO of Singlife Philippines.

Galileo Platforms’ patented blockchain technology enables insurers to connect with customers, distributors, and other key players in real-time using its digital platform, providing a shared source of information for the industry participants, and eliminating the duplication of data.

It is said to provide a low-cost platform and flexible insurance products well suited for the Philippines, where insurance penetration is among the lowest in the region, less than 1% when measured by gross written premiums as a percentage of per-capita GDP.

“Many insurers are struggling to become digital, constrained by legacy processes and systems. With Galileo, new business quotes, pricing, digital policy issuance, commissions and claims are completed in real-time with a single, secure “source of truth” that is agreed by all parties. It’s an immutable point of reference that replaces the need for multiple copies of transactions, customer and policy records.

 

“Two or three years ago, the idea of smallholder farmers in remote corners of the Philippines taking out insurance through blockchain technology would have seemed fanciful. But that is the reality now,”

said Mark Wales, Chief Executive Officer at Galileo Platforms.

Galileo Platforms, a startup supported by Cyberport, supports all types of retail insurance – medical, life, and general. Its technology helps insurers and customers by removing the need for reconciliations and slow back-office processes, thereby reducing cost, complexity, and errors.