News

Laurence Gunn provides a rough guide to the past, present and future of electronic communications technology in reinsurance...

THE LONDON EXCHANGE has made significant progress in proving face-to-face negotiations can comfortably co- exist with electronic workflow within Lloyd’s, but further changes in working practices are required if the “process, values and benefits” of electronic placing are to be fully realised.

Jeff Ward, director at Lime-St.com, connects underwriters and brokers to the Lloyd's Exchange. He argues modernisation measures are becoming more accessible for smaller firms: "The likes of Brit, Aon and Miller have made fairly heavy investments, yet they only account for 10% of the market...

The big push for electronic endorsements over the Lloyd’s Exchange goes in to pilot this summer. Behind it lies a commitment made by most of the Lloyd’s and IUA underwriters and, crucially, the ‘big three’ brokers with thier 45% market share…

Trisystems says software can level the playing field for accessing London Market. A London Market technology specialist has warned against a two-speed broker marketwhere small firms are left behind in the push for new technology. Jeff Ward, business development manager at TriSystems, said a two-speed market need not happen because cheaper products can give smaller brokers the access they require...

Insurance technology firm TriSystems has launched an electronic broking platform that is set to rival those offered by RI3K and The Insurance Workplace (TIW). Lime-St.com communicates electronic endorsements and policy placings with underwriters using Acord messaging standards over the Lloyd’s Exchange...

TriSystems is launching a new electronic broking service, Lime-St.com. The London Market technology specialist has designed the software exclusively for brokers and branded it “the broker’s friendliest and most cost-effective e-business platform”. Users are charged from only £500 per seat annually with no transaction or licence fees...

London Market technology specialists TriSystems will launch a new electronic broking service, Lime-St.com, designed exclusively for brokers and branded as “the broker’s friendliest and most cost-effective e-business platform.”...

A new e-business platform is being launched next month that aims to offer a no frills alternative to London Market Brokers and Insurers looking to transact business electronically...

Jeff Ward, TriSystems director, says: “The small broking community that needs to be part of this aren’t yet part of it.”

Ward said: “The market isn’t big enough to get significant economies of scale. We, as the software-providing community, have a responsibility to level the playing field if at all possible [but] the market isn’t big enough to commoditise the price list because there’s competition. Prices are low [and] at the moment it’s as low as it could be.” ...

ANYONE who says insurance technology is dull has not spent enough time around here recently – I have been on rollercoasters less exciting than this.
I am writing after last Thursday’s Insurance Day Technology Forum, reflecting what brought 16 software vendors to spend a day showing off their market-modernising wares while many of the market’s movers and shakers debated the issues of modernising our market for the 21st century in the hall next door... writes Jeff Ward

BEAZLEY has become the latest insurer to give its underwriters access to the Lloyd’s Exchange by fully integrating electronic trading within its business. Staff within the firm can now undertake electronic placing and endorsements entirely electronically via TriSystems’ Universal Messaging Gateway OnLine system, representing Beazley’s first step towards achieving end to end, straight through processing for both risks and claims...

Straight through Processing is held in high esteem by the heads of many corporations but it has yet to achieve such status among reinsurance professionals, writes Jeff Ward...

Technology has changed reinsurance for good but it is hardly an industry at the cutting edge, writes Katherine Blackler...

The Lloyd’s Exchange, use of the Insurers’Market Repository and electronic trading are just a few of the steps Lloyd’s has taken to bring itself in to the 21st Century but Sarah Hills asks whether these measures are making it harder for new entrants to join the market...

With the announcement of the pilot scheme of the Lloyd's Exchange, electronic trading has become an unstopppable force in the London market...

On the eve of the launch of the Lloyd’s Exchange, Tim Evershed reports on how a flagship technology project could be made or broken by the participation of the two of the market’s largest brokers...

International insurance and reinsurance is finally embracing electronic placement. David Banks finds out how much it will change the life of a broker…

The implementation of Acord-compliant technology could radically change the way international business is brought into London, according to those who work in the technological field in the market...

Jeff Ward, a director of London Market reform technology specialists TriSystems, has been working in the field of technology, information processing and insurance for more than 20 years. But even he admits that it's not easy to pin down all of the ins and outs of the Internet, as it continues to metastasize around the world...

Lloyds is taking another attempt at building a market-wide electronic system. The Lloyds Exchange will accept or reject information based on ACORD messaging standards. IBM has been chosen as the central hub; other technology firms will provide software that enable connectivity to the exchange, such as TriSystems and the Universal Messaging Gateway software...

2009 marks the year in which electronic reform finally starts to become part of the global reinsurance market. Things in the industry are now slowly starting to take shape. E-trading platforms have been around for a couple of years; however data messaging hubs are set to bring about a reform within the industry...

Attending as many insurance parties as she does, Penny understandably gets a little confused in the City streets once in a while. This was certainly the case the other night when merrily on her way to the plush Billiter Street premises of convivial London Market reform technology specialists, Trisystems...

The Lloyds Exchange is marking change in the London Insurance Market, which up until now has been seen to be in the stone ages when it comes to IT. There is a now a push to put the past of Kinnect behind the industry and focus on the Lloyds Exchange; a messaging hub supported by IBM that is set to mark reform within the London Market...

ACORD data Standards will be enforced in the London Market via the Lloyds Exchange; simply a messaging hub that will that will provide a single connection point allowing the exchange of ACORD data messages. The aim of the Lloyds Exchange is for a common standard to be implemented across the market; which will in turn allow the electronic exchange of standardised information through processes relevant to the insurance market...

The Lloyds messaging hub has two key aims. One is to remove the future need to maintain multiple connections with other parties in the market. The second is to make sure that one standard is enforced in the market.  Those companies that already have their own communications systems, such as TriSystems Universal Messaging Gateway software, can easily adapt them to connect to the Lloyds Exchange. To put it simply, it’s “plug and play”...

Lloyd's has selected IBM to become the sole service provider for a new central trading hub - the Lloyd's Exchange pilot The Exchange will allow market participants to transfer risk information to each other using electronic messaging standards. Jeff Ward of TriSystems, said the selection of IBM was a positive step: "It is critical for the market that this works, as this will provide the flag around which the market can reform...”

Jeff Ward of TriSystems believes that the next step in the London Markets technological reform is electronic accounting and settlement. The key challenge, he believes, is to ensure that all participants can communicate seamlessly using ACORD standards. After successful implementation of the Lloyds Exchange with electronic placements and endorsements will be a focus on electronic accounting and settlement. These technological reforms will help to secure London’s place in the global insurance arena...

Jeff Ward of TriSystems says that the London insurance market is among the last to convert to electronic trading – banking, the stock market, oil, commodities, and metals all swapped during the past three decades. The creation of the Lloyds Exchange messaging hub is set to make messaging in the insurance market easier. The face to face interaction in the market is not going to be replaced by a computer, the new technological move is simply going to supplement, streamline and help workflow processes...

A list of the Insurance Day London Market Award Winners in full...

Insurance Day Market Awards magazine article on winners...