More Support for Lloyd’s Business Platform Kinnect

Lloyd’s announced that three more of its leading businesses – QBE European Operations (including Lloyd’s largest managing agent Limit and its company market operations); managing agent Cathedral and, later in the year, Chaucer – are ready to back Kinnect, Lloyd’s electronic platform.

The three are expected to sign contracts shortly. With their addition 8 out of 10 of Lloyd’s ten largest managing agents now back the long-delayed project designed to bring Lloyd’s underwriters’ and brokers’ business processes into the electronic world. Giving up the cherished slipcases, which are still ubiquitous at Lloyd’s, has not proven an easy task.

Supporting the platform is one thing, actually using it on an everyday basis is another. But, there too, LLoyd’s sees some progress. its bulletin pointed out that the new additions bring “the total number of businesses supporting the platform up to 18, with the 15 managing agents representing 60 per cent of Lloyd’s capacity.”

Lloyd’s also said “Kinnect, which securely exchanges risk data and wordings between brokers and underwriters, has also released volume figures for the first time today, showing good progress in its first year of handling risks daily. They show that since May last year, when brokers Marsh and Willis began putting their North American Property risks across the platform daily, Kinnect has handled more than 500 risks in that one class, representing over 1,300 signed lines and $800 million in premiums.”

Kinnect Chief Executive Toby Davies commented: “This is further evidence that Kinnect is backed by more and more key businesses. The volume figures reveal how committed those customers are and how actively Kinnect is being used to support data transfer in this key market sector. These numbers will continue to grow as we adopt more risk classes, starting with Terrorism in June.

“Kinnect is key to achieving a harmonized, efficient process that is vital to achieving contract certainty. By reducing the errors caused by re-keying data, and creating an audit trail of every risk, Kinnect plays an important role in meeting the FSA’s 2006 deadline.” Those accounting mandates, more than anything else, should eventually force Lloyd’s underwriters and brokers to adopt Kinnect.

Chaucer Chief Executive Ewen Gilmour stated: “We are strong advocates of improved and streamlined process in the London market. The Kinnect platform is a very significant contribution to this goal and towards contract certainty. It will benefit Chaucer, brokers and our clients and we are delighted to provide our support.”

The new pledges of support follow the announcement last month of five new businesses backing Kinnect as part of an ongoing initiative by leading brokers Marsh and Willis to explain the increasing benefits of the platform.

The businesses committed to using Kinnect now include: Chaucer, Cathedral and QBE join brokers Marsh, Willis and Guy Carpenter, and underwriters ACE European Group, AEGIS, Amlin, Ascot, Beazley, Catlin, Markel, Wellington, Hiscox, Liberty Syndicates, SVB, and Talbot.