Note: Advantage has been renamed to LIBRA
Recent parliamentary machinations leave London insurers no more certain about the impact of Brexit on their businesses. But a lot of good groundwork has been completed, designed to ensure that everything goes smoothly no matter what happens on March 29th.
Everyone has a plan, but many players have paid insufficient attention to EU delegated authority (DA) business, which delivers large volumes of quality risk to London through coverholders. Even fewer have considered the impact of Brexit on servicing that business through local coverholders and third-party administrators. That critical rung of the Brexit preparedness ladder has not been trodden as thoroughly as the others.
DA SATS is the market’s new system enabling quick and convenient submission of risk, premium, and claims data from DA holders to insurers. It should make reporting cheaper and more efficient. Lloyd’s has mandated its use for shifting European DA business into London through Lloyd’s Brussels, its new EU platform created as a workaround.
But DA SATS is only part of the solution. It is a highly workable tool that provides an excellent mapping facility, but DA SATS doesn’t address the back end of the process. It doesn’t help coverholders collect and format the data which will be transmitted over the system. It is still a case of “validation in arrears”.The Brexit crunch, now only weeks away, provides an excellent opportunity to fix the problems of delegated authority reporting. It is a massive BrexitTech opportunity.
One company – Advent Insurance Management – has a tool that addresses the question of DA claims data collection and quality. Advent’s Advantage platform is one of the few tools so far proven to be fully DA SATS ready. Our partnership with pan-European claims specialist Van Ameyde further gives Advent and Advantage a presence in all 27 EU countries plus a further 13 European states.
DA SATS will only ever be as good as the quality of data which flows through it. Validation in arrears, although better than no validation at all, still requires the time consuming and frustrating process of going back and forth with coverholders and TPAs. Advantage validates the data against the binder immediately upon entry ensuring that it will subsequently sail through any market system. This will deliver the market vision of seamless, straight-through process. Many coverholders and third-party administrators have been working with Lloyd’s for years. No sooner did they get to grips with Lloyd’s Minimum Standards Version 4 than they had to implement 5, then 5.1 (although many remain stuck on v. 4). Now they must adopt DA SATS, which should ultimately make life easier for everyone, but immediately presents another major change, one which doesn’t provide the whole answer.
Herein lies the BrexitTech opportunity. Markets which haven’t contacted DA holders to discuss the process and implications should do so immediately. Better yet, they should provide a complete solution that resolves the underlying DA data challenge. Managing agencies and brokers should embrace Brexit as a chance to take a very significant step in the direction of an efficient digital marketplace.
Doing so successfully will put the London market into a bright and very positive light. Failure to do so could have the opposite effect, bringing chaos and backlash. We still have everything to play for.
If you are ready, we are ready. Our solution will work like a dream, and let you capitalise on the market’s technology investment. If you are intrigued, but not prepared, just call me. We still have time to sort you out.
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