By Phil Race, Managing Director, Agencyport
 The modernisation of the London market is officially underway: In a letter to the CEOs of Lloyd’s managing agents in January, Lloyd’s CEO, Richard Ward underlined the requirement for all endorsements of new and renewing contracts to be placed through its electronic Exchange from July this year. Also, from March 2012 brokers can send all endorsements in every class electronically, and all insurers are able to respond to them.
This initiative is a shining example of serious competitive modernisation and it’s obvious that Richard Ward’s announcement is a thinly veiled promise, some might say threat, that for those who do not grasp the opportunity Lloyd’s will be polishing their spotlight ready for it to be aimed at laggards.
The subject of compulsion is an interesting one sparking much debate, as many market commentators will suggest that compulsion means that the early phases of E-endorsement has not worked. My perspective? Like water running down a hillside, the marketplace will always look for the easiest route. This ‘easy route’ may not, however, be in the best interests of the market. In my opinion, for the market to compete globally, it needs to make some wholesale changes with some of these needing a collective will. If you’ll forgive me for mixing metaphors, at some point we need to mandate the use of the three-pin plug to help accelerate the use of electricity.
Some of Agencyport’s most significant clients have actively embraced the philosophy of automated E-endorsement processing and we count over 55% of Lloyd’s participants as customers including leading players within the market. As our Open+ administration platform can now be fully integrated with E-endorsement messaging, these clients are well equipped for the July deadline.
In a nutshell, the E-endorsement solution from Agencyport enables users of Open+ to manage E-endorsement messages from within the administration platform, an approach that saves valuable time and money and ensures contract certainty. It allows messages to be placed automatically into Open+ together with attached documents and user responses.
We are continuing to develop this innovation, which will enhance competitiveness as the market looks towards the next phases of modernisation. We are already refining our solution ready to deliver future phases of ACORD placing messaging including signed line advices and firm order processing. With the current rapid growth of message volumes, many insurance businesses are recognising the Lloyd’s edict as an opportunity to embrace and benefit from change.
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