Lloyd’s carriers 'genuinely' embrace e-placing, beat targets for second quarter 2019

Specialist re/insurance marketplace Lloyd's of London saw a significant increase in the use of placing platform PPL during the second quarter of 2019 with more than half of its in scope risks placed electronically. PPL board chair Bronek Masojada said the market has "genuinely adopted" e-placements and he hopes to achieve the same success in submission rates.

Latest market-wide data shows that Lloyd’s Syndicates accepted 60.2 percent of in scope risks through electronic placement in Q2, while the use of PPL among the International Underwriting Association (IUA) companies rose to 51 percent during the period.

The target for the quarter was to have placed 50 percent of in scope risks through electronic placement.

The top five syndicates that smashed the e-placing adoption table in Q2 2019 were Markel International Syndicate 3000 with 77.16 percent, followed by Sirius International Managing Agency 1945 (76.84 percent), Neon Underwriting 2468 (75.54 percent), Asta Managing Agency 3268 (74.71 percent), and Newline Underwriting Management 1218 (72.79 percent). Faraday, Asta 4242, and Cathedral were also among the syndicates that placed over 70 percent in scope risks electronically.

“These numbers are a great success for everyone in the market and should give us all tremendous confidence that the London market has genuinely adopted electronic placement," said Masojada. "We got here through a programme of steady and systematic action to change the way the market works."

He added: "The next step is to build the same success in submissions as we have in risks bound, and our goal is to hit a target of 10% for submissions in Q4 of this year. We will be taking the same approach to this work - collaborating widely across underwriting and broking communities and taking one step at a time to gradually increase the flow of business that goes through the platform from start to finish.”

John Neal, Lloyd’s chief executive, added: “These numbers are encouraging and demonstrate a market-wide commitment to modernise the way we do business at Lloyd’s. We must continue with this momentum as well as look to achieve the same success in submission rates.”

Louise Day, IUA director of operations, commented: “The latest quarter shows a significant rise in the use of PPL amongst IUA companies from 32% to 51% of in scope risks. Some new members have recently taken up e-placement via the platform and have really hit the ground running. The introduction of the broker mandate has also made it more likely that more risks are being presented electronically to our members.”

Christopher Croft, CEO of LIIBA, said: “There are now well over 100 broking businesses signed up to electronic placement, representing the vast majority of premiums placed in London – and 55% of risks bound are outside the Big Three brokers. This performance demonstrates that PPL has developed into a significant asset for the market as a whole. Now we need all market participants to continue to work collectively to ensure that it fulfills its undoubted potential to deliver a simpler, more efficient way for our policyholders to access our products and services.”

Sheila Cameron, CEO of the LMA, noted: "These figures are highly encouraging. It is critical that we build on the momentum that is seeing record numbers of risks being placed on PPL by working together as a market to understand and overcome any obstacles that remain to adopting electronic placing.

"The question is no longer 'will the market embrace electronic placing?' but 'what does the platform of tomorrow look like?' It is important to remind ourselves that this is a journey and we will not arrive at the final destination immediately. We must continue to 'learn as we go', so that we can continuously improve the platform and achieve the higher volumes that will enable us to fully realise the benefits in terms of the product we offer our clients, today and in the future."

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