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Electronic Accounting and Settlement arrives in the Bermuda Reinsurance Market Technology in the Bermudian reinsurance market has taken a leap forward with the announcement that Aspen Re has become the first underwriter on the island to successfully implement electronic accounting and settlement (A&S) together with two of the islands leading brokers - Aon and Benfield. A&S Messaging is rapidly becoming an industry wide standard and this implementation within Bermuda demonstrates the importance of A&S globally. This is the first implementation of A&S in Bermuda with Aspen Re Bermuda now trading 100% of its accounting and settlement transactions electronically with the two brokers, which equates to approximately 300 submissions a month. Traditionally, premium and claim transactions, settlement notices and account statements have been delivered by brokers via email, by fax or on paper – manual processes that are prone to error as well as being costly and time-consuming. A&S messaging enables brokers and underwriters to exchange data and documents over a secure internet connection, bringing the benefits of an efficient, standardised process for receipt and processing of messages, and allowing increased volumes of business to be processed without a corresponding increase in headcount. A&S messaging also provides regulatory benefits such as improved compliance in the areas of audit and control, and improved data integrity between brokers and reinsurers. The project forms an important contribution towards the goal of ‘end-to-end’ electronic trading between reinsurers and their broker partners throughout the full risk lifecycle. Lisa Gibbard, Head of I.T. at Aspen Re, commented: “With the implementation of A&S technology, our Finance team have a single ‘portal’ to monitor for incoming broker messages and documents. This replaces the often problematic process of tracking and chasing paper and email notifications and pushes forward with the ‘Market Reform’ initiative which has seen recent success in the London Market.” Aspen Re made use of Web Connectivity’s ACORD messaging Gateway “EnabledB2B”. The Gateway allows the exchange of data and documents using the internationally recognised ACORD standards that have also been adopted by Aon and Benfield in other (Re) Insurance markets. The use of the ACORD standards ensures that every accounting and settlement message has been pre-validated to adhere to a known structure and format providing exciting future possibilities such as automated cash-matching or integration with ‘workflow’ solutions. Paul Smith, Global Head of Customer Technical Services at Benfield, states: “At Benfield we have been successfully using electronic accounting and settlement with our customers in the UK and US for a number of years. The application of this technology to the Bermudian market extends the benefits of A&S even further and we look forward to achieving more implementations of this technology with other reinsurers in the Bermuda market.” Ian Summers, Director of Change Strategy at Aon said: “Aon congratulates Aspen for their support and leadership in Bermuda with the move towards automation of the reinsurance accounting process. The use of messaging to support the reinsurance process introduces transparencies and efficiencies not achievable through the traditional distribution channels, Industry statistics refer to a 35% rework associated with the traditional processes – so the benefits are obvious.” “It is vital that we provide real benefits to our clients and markets for such initiatives to be scalable, as such A&S messaging should be seen as one component in the end to end solution offered by Aon to its clients and markets.” -ENDS- For further press information, please contact: James Willison David Bogg Reuben Aitchison Notes to Editors: About Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited Aon Re Global, the world's leading and most preferred reinsurance intermediary, provides clients with integrated capital solutions and services through a world-class network of experts in more than 35 countries. Clients are better able to differentiate and meet their business objectives with Aon Re Global's best-in-class treaty and facultative reinsurance placement services, capital markets expertise, and relevant analytics and technical expertise, including catastrophe management, actuarial, and rating agency counsel. Aon Re Global was named best reinsurance broker in 2007 and 2006 by readers of Business Insurance, in 2007 by readers of US Insurer and in 2006 by readers of Reinsurance. Benfield is the world’s leading independent reinsurance and risk intermediary. Its customers include many of the world’s major insurance and reinsurance companies as well as government entities and global corporations. Benfield operates from more than 45 locations worldwide. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BFD. www.benfieldgroup.com
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