Brokers test-drive accounting repository in push for reform

By Jonathan Rest, 26 July 2006

FOUR brokers are in the testing stage of an Accounting & Settlement (A&S) repository that has been dubbed "the electronic van" for London’s insurers by a key member of market reform.

Marsh, Benfield, Guy Carpenter and Miller are piloting the A&S repository, which will go live at the end of September, and Andy Brookes, head of the Market Reform Programme Office (MRPO), said it was a "market-changing event."

"Previously the London Premium Advice Note (LPAN) would have been printed off by regional brokers, sent to London in plastic bags and forwarded to Chatham in vans to be processed by Xchanging staff. The A&S repository does this electronically," said Brookes.

By taking paper out of the system, the MRPO said the repository - built by Xchanging for the London market - would bring better quality and more efficiency, while cutting the cost of doing business.

"Brokers will really feel the benefit," said Brookes. "For example, currently any mistakes take time to correct, as the documents have to be returned. With the A&S repository, corrections take seconds rather than days." Mark Barwick, A&S project manager at the London Market Insurance Brokers’ Committee (LMBC), said the repository was "a major step forward" for the market.

"In a business that is increasingly time critical it is amazing we still transport paper documents around the country in a white van," he said.

"A&S repository will speed up this process for both premium transactions and policy issuance by removing the ‘van time’. Not only will the repository give us a quicker process but it also gives us a better process."

He added: "Faster policy agreement by Xchanging will assist many brokers with their contract certainty implementation since it will allow them to get documentation to the client quicker.

"And key documents such as the slip will be centrally stored, thus allowing brokers and insurers access to them at all times and removing the need to resubmit the slip when subsequent transactions such as endorsements require processing."

Brookes said the A&S repository, along with the market electronic claims file (ECF) due to be launched mid-September, is a sign that London has made good progress on reform this year. He also highlighted the role of the G6. "Anybody who pushes forward on reform is fantastic, whether it’s two firms or a group of firms under the auspices of the market reform group," he said.

"What matters is that reform gets done. A small group of leaders is how you make things happen - none of these things are done at the pace of the slowest.

"If there’s an opportunity to do it [reform], take it. If you don’t, your cost of doing business will make you unattractive."

As well as the four brokers who are testing the A&S repository, Aon, Willis, Cooper Gay, Heath Lambert, Jardine Lloyd Thompson and Thompson Heath & Bond have all publicly expressed their commitment to using it during the fourth quarter of 2006.