Lloyd's of London may expel brokers who don't go digital (updated)
20/12/2018 16:25
(Recasts with broker requirement)
By Huw Jones
LONDON, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Lloyd's of London said on
Thursday insurance brokers who refuse to digitalise their
business in 2019 could be thrown out of the centuries-old
market, which covers risks from oil rigs to soccer stars' legs.
It also named Sonja Rottiers chief executive of its new
European Union hub in Brussels.
After a 2 billion pound loss last year, Lloyd's wants to
make its marketplace for 80-plus syndicates more competitive,
with going electronic core to cutting costs.
Much of the business is still conducted face to face with
underwriters and brokers using briefcases or suitcases to carry
paperwork around the building.
Lloyd's introduced its electronic processing system in July
2016, but it has been unpopular with smaller brokers and
underwriters.
It set new quote targets and a broker requirement on
Thursday to speed up adoption.
Each syndicate will be required to have written no less than
40 percent of its risks using the electronic system in the first
quarter of 2019, rising to 50 percent in the second quarter.
Lloyd's said brokers on its market will have to connect to
the system by June 2019.
"However, in the event that a Lloyd's broker does not comply
with the requirement it would be open to the board, depending on
the circumstances of the case, to disapply the requirement,
allow further time for compliance, or to deregister the broker
as a Lloyd's broker," Lloyd's said in a statement.
By the end of November, 29.8 percent of "in scope" contracts
were placed electronically, just shy of a 30 percent target.
The insurance market has said it would launch a Brussels
unit to enable it to continue serving its customers in the
European Economic Area after Britain leaves the bloc next March.
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Rottiers, who has worked for more than 30 years with the
Belgium's financial services industry, was most recently a board
member of ING Belgium and Kinepolis NV Group KIPO.BR , the
company said.
The marketplace also appointed Michel Flamée as chairman of
the new unit, it said.
(Additional reporting by Tanishaa Nadkar and Noor Zainab
Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and David Evans)
((tanishaa.nadkar@thomsonreuters.com; Within UK +44 20 7542
1810; Outside UK +91 80 6749 1691; Reuters Messaging:
tanishaa.nadkar.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))