Innovation network InsTech London has published a 47-page report examining insurance e-trading platforms and the market dynamics that have impacted their uptake of late.
In E-Trading Platforms: Challenges, Opportunities and Imperative – An InsTech London View, InsTech London partner and report co-author Robin Merttens said there exists “palpably a renewed interest in insurance e-trading” after about two decades of previous initiatives within the London market.
“While it might be easy to just point at COVID-19 as the catalyst for the reinvigoration of e-trading, the truth is that the dynamics that give rise to it run far deeper,” asserted Merttens, who prepared the report alongside fellow RI3K alumnus and ex-ACORD director Puneet Bharal.
The report looks at the long history of e-trading systems, the lessons learned, the new generation of platforms, as well as what’s driving the “immense opportunity” to get e-trading established in the mainstream of the specialty, commercial, and reinsurance space.
Not surprisingly, among the drivers was the coronavirus crisis which helped things move faster.
Read more: PPL platform use hits all-time high
“The Corporation of Lloyd’s was forced by the UK government guidelines on avoiding non-essential contact to close the Lloyd’s building in March 2020,” noted the report.
“With face-to-face underwriting abruptly ended, brokers and underwriters were forced into greater reliance on trading electronically through PPL (Placing Platform Limited), Whitespace, and the other approved platforms – and to the surprise of the traditionalists, did so reasonably successfully.”
When the document was released, Merttens commented that the COVID-19 pandemic has acted as a digital adoption accelerant, having provided the “much-needed” momentum that “20 years of cajoling and mandating could not achieve.”
He went on to state, during the report’s launch: “The other big influence is Lloyd’s recent Blueprint Two initiative which has opened the doors to specialist third-party vendors, as long as they operate to agreed data standards and processes. This has greatly reduced the likelihood of a utility-type solution, and encouraged private enterprise to provide compelling platform propositions.”
The report, which cited a possible e-trading system ‘space race’, provided details on 16 companies with e-trading propositions, in hopes of assisting those who are in the process of assessing their options.
