We teamed up with Schroders Capital, the private market specialist within the Schroders Group, and Hannover RE, a leading reinsurance company, to launch a digital plattform for tokenizing insurance-linked securities (ILS). This pilot initiative has successfully enabled reinsurance contracts to be tokenised and traded on a public blockchain using smart contracts.  

Each token represents a share in a portfolio of reinsurance contracts, showcasing how ILS funds could invest through a digital ecosystem in the future. By tokenizing these contracts, many time-consuming processes have been automated, increasing efficiency and enhancing transaction transparency, ultimately improving the client experience. Smart contracts now automate key phases of the product lifecycle, ensuring seamless transitions and reliable rule enforcement, while still allowing for manual intervention when preferred. Collateral management is governed by predefined policies and thresholds within a trustless framework, removing the need for intermediaries. This approach has streamlined traditionally complex processes, further boosting operational efficiency and client satisfaction.

“The success of this pilot showcases the immense potential for enhancing transparency, streamlining investment processes and improving client experience in the reinsurance sector. It paves the way for a more interconnected and efficient digital ecosystem, and we are looking forward to exploring the broader application to wider investment scenarios and clients."

‍Stephan Ruoff
Schroders Capital’s co-head of Private Debt and Credit Alternatives

Let's take a closer look at what this means for the user and explore the technical details behind it.

What Are Insurance-Linked Securities (ILS)?

ILS are financial instruments tied to specific insurance risks – such as hurricanes or earthquakes. Investors provide capital, which is used to cover potential claims. If no qualifying event occurs during the risk-coverage, the investor receives the capital back with a potential return.

Current Challenges and Objectives of ILS

Traditional ILS processes are often characterized by complex structures, multiple intermediaries, and slow claims processing. The ILS Tokenization project aims to reduce this complexity by introducing automation, blockchain-based transparency, and digital execution through smart contracts.

System Structure and Stakeholders

How the Process Works

• The Schroders Fund deposits collateral in USDC into a smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain.
• At the same time, Hannover Re (reinsurance partner) pays the insurance premium – also in USDC.
• The smart contract allocates these funds into a tokenized money market fund (MMF), which invests primarily in low-risk U.S. Treasury instruments via the digital asset platform Archax.
• If no disaster occurs, the remaining collateral is returned to the investor at the end of the term.
• In the event of a qualifying loss, the agent submits a loss report on the blockchain via the platform. Based on the reported data, the smart contract determines whether HannoverRe is eligible for a payout and, if so, automatically triggers the disbursement of the corresponding portion of the collateral.

At the end of the risk coverage period, the smart contract routinely checks whether the investors are eligible for collateral redemption, automatically releasing funds based on a predefined collateral release policy that is driven by the data from the submitted loss reports.

Technical Infrastructure and Asset Flows

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Potential Benefits for Investors and Insurers

From the investor’s point of view:

• All transactions are visible on-chain, providing a high degree of transparency.
• Assets can be monitored and managed through a secure digital platform.
• Automation enables the immediate release of previously trapped collateral.
• The blockchain replaces the traditional custodian by securely holding and managing collateral through smart contracts.

From the reinsurer perspective:

• The process enables faster claim payouts.
• It reduces reliance on manual processing and intermediaries.

Our contribution

• Transforming ideas into concepts by leveraging our deep industry expertise.
• Platform design & development.
• Smart contract engineering.

Conclusion and Outlook

This pilot project exemplifies how blockchain and smart contracts can modernize insurance-linked securities (ILS) by enhancing automation, transparency, and efficiency. Collaborating with Schroders Capital and Hannover Re, we successfully demonstrated the feasibility of tokenizing reinsurance contracts on a public blockchain, paving the way for more accessible and resilient risk transfer mechanisms. This initiative underscores our commitment to driving digital transformation in financial markets through practical, scalable innovation. Importantly the application developed during this project is designed with future use in mind—ready to support upcoming clients and projects as the ecosystem evolves.

In today's digital landscape, businesses often struggle with managing data spread across multiple systems and platforms. This was the challenge our client faced—data scattered across Excel sheets, Mailchimp audiences, different Bexio accounts, and various legacy systems, each having isolated contact information. The lack of integration between these systems led to duplicated contacts, inconsistent data, and inefficiencies in operations. Our task was to consolidate these data silos, eliminate duplicates, and build an interactive solution that would improve CRM (Customer Relation Management)and operational efficiency.

Analyzing Systems and Data Quality

The first step in this project was a comprehensive analysis of the client’s existing systems and the data they contained. We conducted an audit of each data source, including Excel lists, Mailchimp, Bexio, and the legacy systems that the client had relied on for years. The goal was to understand the structure of the data, identify inconsistencies, and assess the overall data quality.

The audit revealed significant challenges. Not only were there numerous duplicate contacts across systems, but the data also varied in quality—some records were incomplete, others outdated. Additionally, the lack of integration between these systems meant that the same contact information could differ from one platform to another, leading to mistakes and inefficiencies.

Before:

Merging Duplicates and Enhancing Data Quality

With a clear understanding of the client’s data landscape, we proceeded to consolidate the information. This process involved the careful merging of duplicate contacts across all systems. We developed and implemented algorithms to identify and match duplicates, taking into account variations in name spellings, email addresses, and other contact details.

As we merged the data, we also took steps to improve its overall quality. This involved standardizing address formats, filling in missing information, and removing outdated or irrelevant records. This allowed the final dataset to not only be consolidated but also accurate, up-to-date, and ready for scale.

Building a Custom ERP System with Airtable

The next phase of the project was to import the cleaned and consolidated data into Airtable, a flexible database platform known for its user-friendly interface and powerful automation capabilities. Airtable was chosen because it could serve as the backbone of a custom ERP (EnterpriseResource Planning) system tailored to the client’s needs.

In the next phase, we will design and build automatic interfaces in Airtable to connect it with the client’s key systems: the website for managing user profiles and course attendance, Mailchimp for email marketing, and Bexio for invoicing and order management. This integration will transform Airtable into a central hub where all data can be accessed, managed, and updated in real-time across all systems. The result will be an automated flow of data, eliminating the need for manual entry and significantly reducing the risk of errors.

‍After:

Overview

For many traditional financial products, the market potential cannot be reached due to complex processes, which increase cost, decrease liquidity and prevent many investors from including them in their portfolios. Our response: Introducing our innovative decentralized application (DApp) designed to revolutionize a range of (illiquid) financial assets starting with insurance-linked securities. This platform includes all relevant elements starting with a token marketplace, all relevant smart contracts, and a user-friendly web interface, supporting blockchain networks like Ethereum and Polygon.

The biggest benefits of our solution are:

• ‍For Marketplace Owners: the tokenization process significantly reduces paperwork and facilitates navigating legal and compliance issues more effectively and efficiently. This allows administrators to convert traditional investment products into digital tokens, simplifying management and trading.
• ‍For Investors: this solution provides access to previously hard-to-trade assets. The tokenization of the investment flow enables investors to seamlessly invest in these tokenized products via mobile phones, enhancing convenience and efficiency.

Our platform accomplishes these issues by:

• Automating traditional manual processes.
• Pre-solving legal and regulatory questions.
• Facilitating easier buying and selling of assets.

To illustrate this, here is a case study with a raspberry business:

‍The business model is simple, with your investment in a raspberry bush, you cover the initial costs as well as the maintenance of the bush for the next 6 years. In return, we give you a share of the profit from the berry sales.

‍We are proud to have accomplished our mission of significantly improving the accessibility, efficiency, and user-friendliness of complex financial products.