“Intermediary, Digital, Data-Driven Platform for Standardised Linking of Complex Industrial Ecosystems and Risk Transfer Technology Ecosystems and Corresponding Processes” in Patent Application Approval Process (USPTO 20230076467): Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd.

2023 MAR 24 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- A patent application by the inventor KANDERAL, Jan (Zurich, CH), filed on October 24, 2022, was made available online on March 9, 2023, according to news reporting originating from Washington, D.C., by NewsRx correspondents.

This patent application is assigned to Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd. (Zurich, Switzerland).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “The invention relates to the technical field of digital platforms that provide digital, data-driven services, risk transfer solutions and collaborations between complex industrial ecosystems and risk transfer technology ecosystems. In order to provide risk transfer solutions to customers in industry ecosystems, it is usually necessary to involve experts with different roles for the use and development of skills. In complex, heterogeneous industrial ecosystems, this leads to an exponentially growing coordination, communication and processing effort for the implementation of new risk transfer products, and automated risk coverage and functions, which hinders the scalability and agility of insurance systems.

“The automation and interactive control of risk transfer processes is complex and technically extremely demanding, especially when the risk exposers are linked to a pool of different assets and risks. There are many reasons for this, such as automated prediction and quantitative measurement of the probability of occurrence, i.e. the measurement of quantifiable risks or risk exposure of an object on the basis of measured physical parameters, i.e. in relation to the current or future occurrence of physical events, in particular damaging events (events with a measurable, physical effect on an object). In this application, risk and risk measure are understood as a measurement unit (quantity) that can be physically measured using technical means. The risk measurement unit can be specified in the units % or as a value between 0 and 1, with 1 denoting a 100% probability of occurrence of the measurable event for the current or a future time window, wherein the probability of occurrence is the averaged frequency of occurrence for such a measurement event in the physical time window, i.e. repeatedly measurable and quantified with technical means. Another reason is, for example, the difficult-to-measure interrelationship between the actually occurring and measurable physical impact strength and the physical strength of the physical event (also referred to here as a risk event). Therefore, the technical challenges for the automated determination, monitoring and control of suitable risk transfer parameters are diverse, wherein the risk transfer parameters define the portion of the risk that is typically balanced and transferred in exchange for monetary parameter values as part of an underwriting process. The automated generation of coverage offers based on physical measurement parameters, which is based on the parameters mentioned above, is technically complex.

“U.S. Pat. No. 9,830,663B2 shows a platform that makes it possible to determine an insurance rating on the basis of an industry classification. The platform receives search data relating to the unit searching for insurance coverage and queries an interface of a third-party platform on the basis of the search data. The system then receives the interface data of a third-party platform from the third-party platform, analyses the data relating to the entity, and retrieves the data from the third-party platform on the third-party platform that indicates content relating to the entity. As an alternative to the variant described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,830,663B2, the inventive system can be designed in such a way that the third-party provider leaves the calculation logic (e.g. premium tables, validation rules, etc.) to the system, wherein the third-party provider’s risk transfer product is reproduced in the system. This may be necessary if the third party provider does not have the technical opportunities to query data (e.g. a specific price) in real time. On the basis of the interface data from the third-party platform and the location data, the system outputs initial data which indicate at least one industry classification associated with the entity. WO2019195725A1 discloses an underwriting and risk management platform that uses machine learning to enable decision making and risk assessment. Predictive analytics using advanced data sets can provide insightful data that can be used for insurance underwriting and usable information for stakeholders. US866086864B2 shows another digital platform for underwriting using data from social networks. The platform comprises an automated platform for risk transfer underwriting to evaluate and rate insurance policies by accessing and evaluating community, social and business network-based information. Community or social network rating data is analysed and weighting factors are applied to the community or social network rating data. An underwriting decision is then transmitted for the unit potentially to be insured, which is based at least in part on the rating data of the community or the social network. WO2019144035A1 shows a system that generally collects, organizes, processes and analyses internal and alternative data sources for the benefit of a broad spectrum of operating activities of insurance companies, including an insurance data platform that uses data from non-traditional, alternative data sources in order to generate a business risk score from web data that provides a unique insurance-related insight into the business that cannot be determined using traditional models.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent application, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent application: “The object of the invention is to provide a technical platform, in particular a digital platform, which forms a digital link and connection with industrial ecosystems and risk transfer technology ecosystems (see FIG. 2), in particular to manage such industrial risks as a digital orchestrator platform for risk transfer providers. The digital platform is intended to automate a scalable, systematic recording, measurement, quantification and forward-looking (predictive) generation of suitable quantitative risk and risk accumulation units of measurement for risk transfers and risk transfer portfolios and to provide the appropriate technical means associated with the risk exposure of physical real units of the industrial and technology ecosystem on the basis of physically measurable measurement parameter values and data, i.e. the effects of a possibly occurring physically measurable event in a defined future time window. Another object of the present invention is to propose a processor-driven system and digital platform which provides an automated digital channel for the automatic conclusion and dynamic adaptation of risk transfers between units of risk transfer ecosystems and units of industrial ecosystems and that does not have the disadvantages of the known systems. In order to provide a technical solution, it is necessary to include a wide variety of roles in the use and implementation of the digital system/channel as an expert system. In smaller teams with qualified employees, it is still possible for one person to have multiple roles. As the process and functionalities increase in size, the roles are filled by individuals. This leads to an exponential increase in the coordination, communication and processing effort for the implementation of new products and functions, which prevents scalability and agility from being achieved. The present digital system has the object of solving these disadvantages by means of technical means. Another object of the present invention is to provide a processor-driven, digital platform which comprises a user interface which is accessible to users with the aid of terminals via a data transmission network, which comprises data entry fields for entering data relating to the object of a risk transfer, which is available as a single, continuous process for the implementation, monitoring and adaptation of risk transfers or portfolios of risk transfers and can be used by the user regardless of the location or the desired object of a risk transfer. The quantitative risk measurement should make it possible to record different device and environmental structures of complex industrial ecosystems, whereby a precise and reproducible measurement of risk factors is made possible and the effects of the risk events on the occurrence of the associated events can be optimised.

“According to the present invention, these objects are achieved in particular with the features of the independent claims. In addition, further advantageous embodiments can be derived from the dependent claims and the associated descriptions.

“According to the present invention, the above-mentioned objects for an intermediary, digital, data-driven platform for industrial ecosystems for the quantised recording, provision, measurement and automated management of risk transfers and/or automated risk transfer orchestration as a digital, standardised link or digital, standardised channel between risk event-exposed units of the industrial ecosystem and the risk transfer ecosystem in fragmented, heterogeneous data environments, in particular to cover effects on the event-exposed units caused by defined, future occurring, physical events as a source of risk, are achieved in that the probability of the future occurrence of one of the defined physical events comprises heterogeneous risk classes and risk segments, and the intermediary platform as a standardised digital channel links the event-exposed units and the risk transfer systems by means of the risk transfers, so that by means of the digital platform, the risk transfers with assigned risk transfer parameters and assigned premium parameters for the heterogeneous risk classes and risk segments based on recorded user- or exposure-specific data are provided in a standardised and automated manner and are stored as risk transfer portfolio data assigned to a portfolio in a persistence memory of the digital platform, wherein the risk transfer portfolio data of a risk transfer comprise at least one allocated link between a risk source, a risk exposure measure and an event-exposed asset of an event-exposed unit, and wherein, based on the assigned premium parameters, premiums are transferred to the digital platform or the risk transfer systems for carrying out the risk transfer, so that if one of the defined events and one of the effects that can be assigned to the event occurs on one of the event-exposed assets of the risk transfer portfolio data, damage parameters are recorded in a standardised manner by means of the digital platform, wherein, by means of the recorded damage parameters, a damage coverage for effects generated by the occurring defined event based on the risk transfer parameters is automatically triggered by means of the system and is transferred to the event-exposed unit.

“The digital platform has, inter alia, the advantage that it allows a digital, standardised channel to be provided as a technical platform for digital markets for heterogeneous industrial ecosystems in order to cover and manage their various risks in an automated and optimised manner as an automated risk transfer orchestrator. In order to be able to provide a customer, i.e. a risk-exposed unit of the industrial ecosystem, with risk coverage by means of risk transfer solutions, at least five roles listed below must be included. In the prior art, in smaller teams with qualified employees, it is possible for one person to hold multiple roles. However, when the risk coverage process and the functionalities become larger, the roles must be filled by individuals. In the case of even larger processes, this leads to an exponential increase in the coordination, communication and processing effort for the implementation of new risk transfer structures and functions, which, apart from the necessary manual processing, prevents scalability and agility from being achieved. The roles include (i) client (risk-exposed entity), (ii) underwriter, (iii) developer, (iv) tester, and (v) risk taker, i.e. a risk transfer system or insurance system. DevOps can, for example, be used to optimise and improve the cooperation between risk transfer structure development and risk transfer operation through the risk transfer system. That means DevOps to produce the quality of the structure provided, the speed of development and delivery. The first two roles (i) and (ii) can be assigned to the “use capability” layer, while the last three roles (iii), (iv) and (v) can be assigned to the “build capabilities” layer. The risk taker belongs to the “build capabilities” layer, since a special risk transfer product often has to be designed. To avoid the above-mentioned problems, the inventive structure allows the development of skills for risk transfer to be technically separated from the use of skills for risk transfer. The proposed solution allows clients from the industrial ecosystem and solution designers to orchestrate the functions provided for customer-specific use cases on the basis of the inventive workflow engine. Risk transfer providers and IT engineers can jointly develop agnostic skills, e.g. creating certificates, First Notice of Loss (FNOL) on the mobile phone, processing bordereaux payments, etc. With the inventive, intermediary, digital platform, damage claims can be reported (First Notice of Loss, FNOL) by email, short message system (SMS) or other short message services, telephone or online on the claims portal. The incoming messages are collected centrally and automatically forwarded to the various modules for further processing. Due to having to be done manually in the prior art, this was inefficient and led to long processing times if the assignment was incorrect or the teams were overloaded. The present invention allows a machine-learning unit of the digital platform to be trained on a cleaned database, for example based on a supervised learning structure. In this way, the inventive system recognises the various types of damage and generates corresponding messages independently or automatically carries out the corresponding triage. A feedback loop can be used, for example, to provide feedback on whether the case has been correctly forwarded. This feedback flows directly into the calibration of the algorithm. With the inventive system, the assignment of claims is therefore fully automatic. The distribution of messages is therefore more precise and much faster than in the manual process. The system learns with every risk transfer and damage coverage carried out and improves continuously.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A system for scalable, standardised provision, implementation, and management of risk transfers of a plurality of risk transfer systems to cover effects on event-exposed units caused by defined, future occurring, physical events as a risk source, where a probability of a future occurrence of one of the defined physical events comprises heterogeneous risk classes and risk segments, the system comprising: a processor-driven intermediary, digital, event-driven platform, wherein the platform links, as a standardised digital channel, the event-exposed units and the risk transfer systems by the risk transfers, the platform provides, in a standardised manner, the risk transfers with assigned risk transfer parameters and assigned premium parameters for the heterogeneous risk classes and the risk segments based on recorded user- or exposure-specific data and stores the risk transfers with the assigned risk transfer parameters and the assigned premium parameters as risk transfer portfolio data assigned to a portfolio in a persistence memory, the risk transfer portfolio data of each of the risk transfers includes at least one allocated link between a risk source, a risk exposure measure, and an event-exposed asset of an event-exposed unit, based on the assigned premium parameters, premiums are transferred to the platform or the risk transfer systems for carrying out the risk transfers, when one of the defined physical events and one of the effects that can be assigned to the one of the defined physical events occurs on one of the event-exposed assets of the risk transfer portfolio data, the platform records, in a standardised manner, damage parameters, and the platform automatically triggers and transfers, to the event-exposed unit, a damage coverage for effects generated by the occurring defined physical event based on the risk transfer parameters and the recorded damage parameters.

“2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the risk exposure measure is determined based on a measured and/or forecasted probability of occurrence with an assigned event strength and a transmission strength for a defined future time window as a function of time.

“3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the platform is realised at least based on a triple layer structure including a product layer for automated configuration and generation of a risk transfer with product-specific capacities, an administration layer for management and assignment of company-specific capacities, and an infrastructure layer for providing digital platform functionalities.

“4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the risk transfer is at least automatically generated and/or configured based on rate tables via the product layer.

“5. The system according to claim 3, wherein the risk transfer is dynamically generated and/or configured via the product layer.

“6. The system according to claim 3, wherein the product-specific capacities are generated product-specifically via the product layer.

“7. The system according to claim 6, wherein the product-specific capacities include at least product-specific process functionalities and/or product-specific system functionalities.

“8. The system according to claim 3, wherein the company-specific capacities are generated company-specifically via the administration layer.

“9. The system according to claim 8, wherein the company-specific capacities include at least company-specific process functionalities and/or company-specific system functionalities.

“10. The system according to claim 3, wherein the administration layer includes at least one policy module and/or a claims administration module and/or an operational reporting module and/or an event manager module and/or a placing platform.

“11. The system according to claim 3, wherein the digital platform functionalities include at least digital security functions and/or a digital monitoring functions.

“12. The system according to claim 3, wherein the platform includes a workflow engine for configuring and executing a processing process for individual applications in the workflow engine using the product-specific capacities and the company-specific capacities developed via the product layer and the administration layer.

“13. The system according to claim 3, wherein the digital platform includes a jointly accessible API integration layer for company-specific backend applications.

“14. The system according to claim 3, wherein the digital platform includes a standardisation layer, external data sets are transferable and/or translatable in standard data structures of the digital platform via the standardisation layer, and re-usability of the company-specific capacities is provided via the standard data structures.

“15. The system according to claim 3, wherein the company-specific capacities include encapsulated and independently developed process and system functionalities.

“16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the encapsulated and independently developed process and system functionalities of the company-specific capacities include defined input parameters and defined output parameters.

“17. The system according to claim 1, wherein the heterogeneous risk classes and the risk segments include at least one of: maritime-based risk events, aviation-based risk events, trade finance-based risk events, Industrial IoT-based risk events, logistics-related risk events, and parametric coverage of natural catastrophe events.”

URL and more information on this patent application, see: KANDERAL, Jan. Intermediary, Digital, Data-Driven Platform for Standardised Linking of Complex Industrial Ecosystems and Risk Transfer Technology Ecosystems and Corresponding Processes. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230076467, filed October 24, 2022 and posted March 9, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230076467)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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