The Cinderella Story

With the title of this post I refer not to the beginning of the college basketball tournament in the U.S. which begins today and is known for the "Cinderella stories" of overachieving college teams, but rather to a story in today's Advisen Front Page News quoting Lord Levene, Chairman of Lloyd's.



Levene hits on two of my favorite themes about Lloyd's - the need for paperless processing (see my posts on the subject here) and the tension among old and new capacity providers at Lloyd's in today's soft market (see my recent post here).



In discussing how progress has been made in ending the van runs from Lime Street, Levene notes that there is a long way to go before paperless processing is a reality and hints at the fact that the insurance industry could be at a competitive disadvantage to other capital providers such as the investment banks pouring money into the industry and securitizing policies. I love this quote from Lord Levene:

'If we are to end our status as a Cinderella industry we have to improve
the quality of our systems.'

Advisen has invested in Web Connectivity which enables paperless processing through its award-winning ACORD messaging gateway EnabledB2B.



And answering the complaints (of Mr. Hiscox and Mr. Catlin) about allowing new money into Lloyd's, in affirming how Lloyd's has agreed to manage the cycle through the Franchise Directorate, Levene said:

'I think there is an extreme lack of candor in this industry.'

The story can be found here.

Another Lloyd's Survey

Lloyd's recently released the results of its annual survey of its underwriters citing their concerns for the upcoming year, see my comments here.

Today I read about a survey measuring satisfaction with Lloyd's as related by 506 brokers, reinsureds, insureds and coverholders. The results are on page 3 of the .pdf document found here - overall satisfaction increased from 7.6 out of 10 to 7.8.

It's noteworthy that the results show good scores for turnaround speed in all areas except contract documentation and staying informed during a claim - noteworthy because these are the most important to the client. The reform agenda is working to improve these areas with contract certainty and electronic processing of claims.

The case is made that there is an uptick in overall satisfaction which can be attributed to the gains made in modernizing the processing of policies at Lloyd's. I support the assumption because of the significant progress made in processing accounting messages and claims online instead of by paper.

To evidence this progress, see the story on the same page which cites the Market Reform Group's report that 70% of accounting messages and 92% of claims are now processed online.

In terms of the impact this reform is having on brokers, one of the big 3 brokers uses ACORD messaging (the Web Connectivity gateway) and told me this week that the ROI from online processing of accounting and claims is already being felt in their bottom line.

Answering Gargamel – Part II of II

To further the discussion of how the insurance industry is evolving, it’s important to put into context what commercial insurance is transacted online.

ACE, among others, offers D&O quotes on its website. This is driven by a matrix of basic exposure assumptions as maintained by ACE underwriters. The key is that this commoditisation of D&O is only available for small clients, to get a quote from anyone, including ACE, you have to speak to an underwriter which means you have to go through a broker.


No insurance underwriter is prepared to provide online quotes for large, complex risk. There’s no liquidity, no exposure benchmarks to use, it’s not like adding spreads to treasury bonds and deriving pricing. Just like new issue pricing in the bond markets, new issue insurance pricing is more art than science.

This is why the adoption of technology is evolving late – just as I was nearly done with implementing online trading solutions for the secondary bond market before we drafted the first prototype for new issuance.

That being said, it’s sad that there is still paper in the process and I applaud the progress made by those firms at Lloyd’s who have made online accounting and online claims processing such a success. The majority of this success is made possible by simple, yet deep, integration using ACORD standards.

Mr. Gargamel I apologize for the delayed response, but I hope I’ve addressed your points. Thank you for the thoughtful comment to Part I of this response (see here).

Answering Gargamel – Part I of II

I admit to poor form in spending more time trying to (unsuccessfully) identify “Mr. Gargamel” who posted a thoughtful comment to a post (here) than in addressing the many and important issues in the comment.

The crux of his comment is the pivot point of who is boss in the insurance industry – He Who Pays Premium, Places Premium or Writes Policies for Premium.

If you agree that the impact of the internet has been to empower the consumer (who now dictates the terms of engagement for the purchase cycle of many products), then why hasn’t the commercial lines insurance industry evolved to this model?

Personal lines insurance products have – they are all transacted online, competition is fierce and comparison sites are hugely successful.

What’s the difference in commercial lines whether in the US, Bermuda or on Lime Street?

I compare the commercial insurance industry to the syndication of new bond issuance. Although Bill Hambrecht has launched an auction site to connect companies raising capital through IPO or secondary offerings to investor capital, this is both new and relatively insignificant.

Ford issues paper through Merrill, Morgan, Lehman & Goldman because of distribution – these houses can provide valuable analysis AND provide a wide network of significant buyers. There is no comparison site for this large issuance and there is little to no activity on the insurance equivalent – RI3K.

For these reasons, I disagree with the sentiment from the comment that “traditional agency channels will almost certainly decline”.

PS - Adoption of ACORD standards will not by itself empower the Risk Manager, the influence dynamic will not shift from the brokers and underwriters. Instead, adoption of efficient placement using ACORD will help take unnecessary cost out of the process and these savings should be passed on to the client. Call the management team at Web Connectivity to learn more.

Comments on the Lloyd's Annual Underwriting Survey

What does thr Lloyd’s Annual Underwriting Survey tell us?

1) Lloyd’s is committed to providing more information about its performance than its competitors do. Survey respondents cited such transparency as a major competitive advantage and I believe it's part of why Lloyd’s brand is one of the business world’s most powerful.

2) Subprime is a concern to all, not just the D&O guys. The majority of respondents write property, marine, energy, and reinsurance yet “Managing the Cycle” is the most important issue, and “Global Financial Market Instability” the most significant factor, facing the global insurance industry in 2008.

3) Head East – the greatest area of growth according to Lloyd's underwriters is in China and India. I think this should say “untapped area of growth” because I believe Lloyd’s could write a lot more North American risk than it does. The combination of relaxed rules about how brokers can bring risk to Lloyd’s and the ease-of-access through adoption of ACORD standards will make it far easier for brokers to include quotes from Lloyd’s in marketing run-of-the-mill U.S. risk.

4) On the subject of Lloyd’s Market Reform, there is great progress in going to paperless accounting and claims. The report cites 82% agreeing that there is “high commitment” to reform but I’d like to see Lloyd’s boost its market reform marketing efforts by conducting a study about the impact of adopting ACORD standards. For instance, is manual upoad/download sustainable as compared to integrating ACORD standards into the process? We at Web Connectivity have volunteered to conduct this survey.

5) There is one underwriter who should be removed from the premises – see the chart below:

Insurance Industry Events

More than any industry I've worked in, insurance is relationship-driven.

Lloyd's in particular thrives on the trust between brokers and underwriters and buyers of insurance feel comfortable that their assets are covered based on a handshake.

This is both good for the customer and bad for those trying to document the policies involved. It's no wonder insurance litigation is so prevalent around claims. In fact, I've just hired a terrific new Sales Director (Colin Fennelly). In past positions Colin sold outsourced services to insurance companies to reduce the defense costs associated with this litigation, getting paid out of any savings found. It's an amazing economic ecosystem.

London has achieved a higher degree of "Contract Certainty" through recent reforms (see here for more), and the challenge of online processing of commercial insurance is still formidable. For example, how do you trade handshakes online?

Advisen invested in Web Connectivity which is the market leader in ACORD messaging software which is a key reason why Lloyd's and London market brokers and underwriters are moving accounting and claims processing online. Web Connectivity's growing client list and increased online volumes are highly correlated.

While the Lloyd's and London markets congregate in the square mile of postcode EC3 and meet socially all the time, and Bermuda is a close reinsurance community, the rest of the global insurance industry frequents industry events to meet with customers and trading partners. I was floored at the number of events Advisen is tracking. See list here.

I'm planning to attend the ACORD Conference in Las Vegas in May and the AIRMIC conference in Edinburgh in June and Advisen has a big presence at the year's biggest event - the RIMS Conference in April.

Realistic goals: Fewer vans, less paper

London is an amazing coexistence of the old and the modern. Where else can you walk from pubs that have been in continuous operation since the 16th century and walk across London Bridge to modern buildings like the Swiss Re building?

Lloyd's itself is a unique microcosm of this coexistence of the old and the modern. Lloyd's is as relevant today as ever before with operations expanding across the globe (China last year, Brazil just announced).

However, much of Lloyd's announced £15.95b 2008 capacity will be transacted by paper. See my December 2007 post (here) for more background. Lloyd's, other London underwriters and brokers all process through the "bureau" in a joint venture with Xchanging. New deals, changes to existing deals, accounting statements for reconciliation among brokers and underwriters, new claims and updates to existing claims are all processed centrally.

Much progress has been made to convert central processing from paper-based to electronic. The advantages are obvious - reduction in manual data (re)entry, reduction in the inevitable errors from manual (re)entry of data, and process efficiency which all translates to reduced time and cost of binding policies. Ultimately the client should benefit and Lloyd's and London should be on a more competitive level playing field with other insurance markets globally.

As I posted in December (here) the adoption of electronic processing of claims and accounting reconciliations is progressing significantly. With more and more electronic messaging using the ACORD standards and most via the Web Connectivity gateway, there is palpable momentum and there is no question that the bureau's vans carrying paper to offsite processing centers will soon be extinct.

Lloyd's now expects all new claims to be electronic by the end of March 2008 and other London underwriters are targeting the end of September 2008. Everyone is expecting to reconcile accounting statements electronically by the end of March 2008.

While new deal syndication (aka "placement") is going to be via paper this year, the market is expecting to build momentum to electronically communicate changes to existing deals (aka "endorsements") in 2008.

It might seem to make sense to start with the beginning of the process (placement) but this didn't work with Kinnect (£70m spent with no result) and the bond and equity markets moved to electronic processing of accounting first before the equivalent of placement was moved online. In fact online bond trading was just taking off when this author joined Bloomberg in 1994. It was great to be in the middle of that transformation and equally rewarding to be part of the solution here.

Web Connectivity staffs up to meet demand

Web Connectivity, the market leading ACORD messaging provider (whom Advisen is proud to have invested in), has just hired a leading figure in oline messaging in the insurance industry.

Having implemented technology and change programs to enable underwriter connectivity, by joining Web Connectivity Les Cooper can help clients of all types in the London market catch up. The figurative train has left the station and we are delighted to welcome Les on board.

You can read the full announcement (here).

100% ECF and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

ACORD's London office hosted a very nice Christmas champagne breakfast this morning for those involved in using ACORD standards to do electronically in London what is now done by paper.

Andy Brookes runs the Market Reform Office and acts as a program manager for underwriters and brokers and has his finger on the pulse of progress. I asked about how many claims are "in scope" to get a sense of the true progress to date, I wanted some clarification to the goals set in the Lloyd's 3 Year Plan.

Andy explained that 80% of all new claims brought to the market are "in scope" for Electronic Claims File (ECF). Of this 80%, the market has achieved 60% conversion from paper.

In Accounting & Settlement, paper processing is expected to be retired on 100% of new deals by the end of March 2008.

All of this electronic processing is conducted through the Insurers Market Repository (IMR). Now that the Web Connectivity gateway is operational, the IMR is processing over 30,000 claims and A&S document messages per week. Notably, gateway traffic (ACORD DRI messages) accounts for the majority of IMR activity (the remainder being direct upload by website which means double-keying by brokers).

This is real progress on back-office processing. Advisen will follow this story closely on Front Page News.

Lloyd's, a 3 Year Plan

Yesterday Lloyd's of London issued its updated 3 year plan covering 2008-2010. On the heels of announcing 6-months results this fall of £1.8b in pre-tax profit, and with an influx of new capital providers (Goldman Sachs, Bank of America to name a few), and Lloyd's Managing Agents like Kiln fetching nice valuations in the M&A market (story here) you would assume that all is well.

The report details why there is major cause for concern.

First among these concerns is the soft market - see the chart of Advisen's premium index to the right. Insurance pricing continues to fall and with a benign claims environment, there is no sign of a reversal in this pricing trend (even in the face of mounting subprime losses sure to trigger D&O claims).

Lloyd's offers a unique platform for underwriting investment (carrot) and polices underwriting discipline to protect its Central Fund (stick). While total capacity will shrink slightly in 2008 at Lloyd's, underwriters are keeping their clients after years of fighting to win this business. Dave Bradford of Advisen wrote about this in "The Myth of Underwriting Discipline" in the latest edition of Insider Quarterly.

Second among concerns facing Lloyd's is the cost of doing business at Lloyd's both in terms of processing and taxation, with the report citing global competition as a threat.

Lloyd's is key to driving a change agenda for processing online versus by paper and will miss its goal to have all "in-scope" claims filed electronically by the end of 2007. Lloyd's currently processes 60% of "in-scope" claims files online.

The 3 year plan sets the goal of all claims to be filed electronically by the end of 2008, meaning that all claims will be "in-scope". Further, the goal is for all Accounting & Settlement to flow through the online repository by July 2008.

There are two ways from brokers and underwriters to achieve this goal:

1) re-keying and copying files to the repository web sites

2) having electronic filing be part of the regular workflow

Clearly the second option with the integration via ACORD messaging gateways is the preferred route and I hope Lloyd's will encourage more brokers and underwriters to sign up for Web Connectivity.

Last among the concerns I highlight is a need for better information. In a soft market where underwriters are tempted to relax their scutiny of the risk and chase the rates down to keep their business, tools like Advisen are more in need than ever.

According to the 3 year plan, the trading floor at Lloyd's is here to stay but much is said about Lloyd's "as an institution, not a place" and that access to this institution needs to be easier. Together with the dedicated staff at Web Connectivity, the Advisen London office works hard to help Lloyd's brokers and managing agents achieve these goals.

Time Warp in London

Walk down Lime Street in London, it will shock you.

All around you will see progress, old buildings torn down in favor of modern architecture.

But don't look up for too long or you will bump into a broker carrying armfuls of paper. Literally folders and folders of new policies or changes to existing policies, or if it's an attractive, young female broker, odds are that she'll be carrying a claim to Lloyd's.

The fact that this market still processes trades by paper is just incredible to me. The stock market has been clearing trades electronically for decades, and in the mid-'90s I was part of a team at Bloomberg that helped fund managers trade bonds online.

"Market Reform" is a key initiative of Richard Ward's and there is much progress Web Connectivity is a leading agent for change. Advisen invested in Web Connectivity and is helping to take their ACORD messaging gateway to Bermuda and the US.

Congratulations

Congratulations to our friends at TIW for picking up an award at this year's Insurance Day Awards dinner.

Using the gateway from Web Connectivity, TIW built an easy way for brokers in the London market to communicate accounting, settlement and claims information.

For brokers wishing to integrate with in-house or vendor-bought document management systems, the full Web Connectivity gateway is the choice.

Advisen is a strong supporter of accelerated market reform in the Lloyd's and London market through its investment in Web Connectivity and through engaging the Bermuda and US markets using the Web Connectivity gateway.

See yours truly at the play-money blackjack table at last year's Insurance Day awards - £10 of real money to the first reader to guess who was to my left...

Momentum

Chaucer Syndicates Ltd is the latest Lloyd's Managing Agent to take Web Connectivity's ACORD messaging gateway. More than half of Lloyd's capacity can now communicate electronically, with Web Connectivity having 90% marketshare.

Aon has been a leader in the drive to replacing paper-based communication with online messaging and Ian Summers, Director of Change Strategy, Aon added, "Implementation of Web Connectivity will enable Chaucer to benefit from secure, seamless data and document transfer, one of the key benefits of the new system."

Pride in a portfolio company

As the year comes to a close we as a society go list-crazy. Not to miss out on the fun, I just noted that Web Connectivity, Advisen's first corporate investment, has achieved a well-known client list including 4 Fortune 250 companies and 6 FTSE 250 companies.

Web Connectivity is the leading provider of ACORD messaging solutions (gateways).

Tail wagging the dog

At the recent ACORD Forum in London, Alex Letts, the high-profile CEO of RI3K, commented about how he wished the ACORD standards would be frozen for awhile, that there have been too many changes. Further, Alex said that the London market slip that brokers bring around to underwriters should be frozen.

Roger Townsend, head of Xchanging Ins-Sure Services, disagreed from the same panel and the crowd was also aghast. Andy Brookes of the Market Reform Programme Office asked if we hadn't moved on from the IT tail wagging the business dog.

Imagine my surprise today at reading an article on the subject in the Insurance Times. Why did Alex push this?

In an industry that is so clearly in need of change and where the market is constantly reacting to the evolving needs of corporate clients, how could the slip be frozen?

Web Connectivity and other vendors don't have trouble keeping up with the ACORD standards.