The Corporation rests a large part of its future vision on two platforms – one for complex risk and one for more straightforward business – powered by data and connected with the existing systems of brokers and carriers.
It is clear that technology is the key to the market’s survival. At a roundtable convened at the The Insurance Insider’s London Market Conference in November, and supported by DXC, data and technology experts from the market came together to discuss the London market’s progress in modernisation so far.
The compulsory nature of various systems and technologies was brought into focus. While participants said that five years ago making technologies mandatory was highly unpopular, the market will not move as one and adopt technology quickly unless it is mandated. This was the case for DA Sats and PPL, they agreed.
InsurTechs, while generating a great deal of noise in the market, were not expected to make an overwhelming impact. One participant remarked that InsurTechs tended to focus on a single idea or function, making them less attractive to insurance investors, and that the barriers to entry for such companies into the London market remain high.
Further, the best technology money can buy could not solve the London market’s problems on its own. Participants agreed that, as sophisticated as it is, blockchain can do little to streamline processes in the Lloyd’s market because cover is not priced at the point of trade. It is processes that must change first, before technology can have much impact, they said.
Parallels were drawn with the wealth management sector, where companies had worked out how to price complex assets at the point of trade and improve the process, for instance.
Regardless of the imperfections of tools such as PPL, participants agreed the platform had successfully convinced a generation of underwriters and brokers that the future was digital, instilling the use of technology as second nature in preparation for more sophisticated technologies and processes.
Participants also said that Brexit had been a catalyst that pulled the market together to adopt technologies and data practices that they would otherwise not have done so urgently. For instance, Lloyd’s Brussels, created to help London carriers to continue writing European business post-Brexit, requires all carriers to provide data in electronic form, thus providing an impetus for companies to update their processes.
It is clear that Lloyd’s will face a major challenge in proposing technology and data solutions that will unite the market, which comprises many players with competing interests. The adoption of that technology, however, is the only way to bring the market up to date and allow it to continue competing on the world stage.
Read on to learn more.
Click here to view the London Market Roundtable 2019 supplement.