Aon to provide crime insurance coverage to cryptocurrency custody firm Metaco

Cryptocurrency custody company Metaco has announced that major re/insurance broker Aon has arranged a panel of London insurers who will offer crime insurance product to its clients.

The details of this panel of insurers have not been disclosed. In its press release, Metaco said that the crime insurance product will use SILO, its integrated hot-to-cold wallet management solution for financial institutions.

SILO can help financial institutions protect their digital assets from the losses resulting from loss, damage, destruction or theft, Metaco said.

Aon, which also has tie ups with other crypto custody players including Anchorage and Vo1t, said that the policies cover losses on everything – from private keys getting destroyed due to natural disasters to third-party hacks of hot wallets, CoinDesk reported. The dollar amount of coverage has not been disclosed yet.

“Aon is pleased to have pioneered the formation of an insurance solution covering theft of crypto assets for the benefit of METACO’s customers while utilising the SILO platform. The METACO team worked in conjunction with Aon to highlight to insurers the robust nature of the SILO system, which resulted in a bespoke insurance product being granted by a panel of London insurers,” Jeff Hanson, a Director within Aon’s UK Financial Services Team, said.

The Swiss startup noted that insurers assess a number of things while evaluating a crypto asset custodian's offering. This includes the custodian's approach to compliance and Anti-Money Laundering (AML), the technical infrastructure and its implementation, and the operational and physical security.

The arrangement with Aon, Metaco said, will help simplify the underwriting process for both insurers and its clients as “the insurer’s technical requirements are largely met out-of-the-box.”

Established in 2015, Metaco is partly owned by Swisspost, Swisscom, SICPA, and Avaloq. It aims to become “the trusted technology provider for financial institutions in need of highly secure, flexible and scalable digital asset management infrastructure.”

In December, Metaco teamed up with Avaloq and Swiss bank Gazprombank to implement an integrated crypto asset solution designed for banks and wealth managers.