Report — SERI Phase 1 Standard

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Executive Summary

This report describes the progress achieved and deliverables accomplished in 2020 with respect to the Policy & Regulation and Systems and Standards workstreams for a Standard for Environment, Risk and Insurance (SERI)’s Phase 1—a standard for environmental and financial data sharing. As intended, the workstreams have built on learnings from Open Banking, and the European Union’s work on climate mitigation and adaptation, financial standards and policies, in scoping the key impact areas for SERI’s work and the associated roadmap for delivery of SERI’s Phase 1 Standard. SERI’s goal is to create impact by enabling data discovery and access, and delivering interoperability at web-scale, thus realising the transformative potential of being able to measure and manage systemic climate-related risk, drive net-zero outcomes in the insurance industry, and, ultimately accelerate the transition to a green economy. SERI’s immediate use cases focus on the needs of the insurance industry; however, in order to ensure interoperability at web-scale, we are acutely aware of the need to drive the creation of a federated network of standards. This requires alignment with initiatives such as Icebreaker One’s Open Energy project, and, more widely, with emerging industry standards and frameworks for climate-related data, reporting and disclosures, such as the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures.

Our work shows that a Shared Data Infrastructure (SDI) has the ability to address data requirements
around discovery, access and interoperability, as well as unlocking the potential for the creation of
more time-granular and domain-specific analysis and interventions. Furthermore, the development
of a robust Trust Framework is essential to the success of a truly multilateral and multi-participant,
multi-API SDI.

In light of this, since initiation of the SERI programme in April 2020, we have:

  1. Brought together stakeholders to identify potential use cases, from which data sharing
    requirements arise, that can be addressed by an open standard.
  2. Developed the potential governance framework for the sharing of data between trusted
    participants.
  3. Created a stakeholder map of participants in the insurance ecosystem.
  4. Mapped the relevant data flows across the insurance industry.
  5. Scoped and drafted the roadmap for the next stage of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP),
    based on our use cases.
  6. Developed a high-level architecture for the MVP.

The remainder of SERI’s Phase 1 Data and Standards work will focus on:

  1. Development of a framework for delivery of a minimum viable proposition standard (MVP).
  2. Definition of a roadmap for delivery of wider use cases, building on the initial framework for a
    shared data infrastructure standard.