Hayley Robinson, Managing Director of Global Risk Solutions at RSA, explains why joining Placing Platfom Limited (PPL) complements RSA’s aim to combine innovation and expertise and become a stronger partner for brokers and customers.
Hayley Robinson, Managing Director of Global Risk Solutions at RSA, explains why joining Placing Platfom Limited (PPL) complements RSA’s aim to combine innovation and expertise and become a stronger partner for brokers and customers.
As a company with a history stretching almost as far back as the first records of Edward Lloyd’s coffee shop RSA, like Lloyd’s, has survived the twists and turns of three centuries’ worth of history by innovating and adapting to change.
We are now in what has been described by some economists as the fourth industrial revolution, and the London Market is in the throes of its own technological transformation. The multi-streamed London Market Target Operating Model (LM TOM) was launched in 2015, while RSA embarked on a transformation programme of its own three years ago. Digitisation has been a key driver in RSA’s shift to becoming a more agile, efficient organisation for brokers and customers.
Shared platform
The LM TOM’s PPL, launched in July 2016, provides a shared platform for brokers and underwriters and is aimed at reducing duplication of work, excessive administration and the scope for human error.
As new lines are added to PPL, the imperative for brokers and underwriters to begin using the platform has increased. The addition of RSA to the list of registered users is a good development for both the platform and its stakeholders.
And so in March, with a relatively unremarkable sub £10,000 premium risk, an underwriter in RSA’s professional and financial lines team bound the firm’s first slip using the London Market’s electronic placing platform. This deal, completed within four days of RSA being admitted to join PPL, is a significant step forward for RSA as a major underwriter of multinational insurance business, says Hayley.
Pressing case
“RSA has large books of Professional & Financial Lines and Marine business. The addition of these lines to the list of risks available for electronic trading made a pressing case for us to join PPL,” explains Hayley.
“We welcome innovation in the insurance industry and we want to be in a strong position to both support it and benefit from it. That we have been able to successfully quote and bind a risk via PPL so early on – that we might not otherwise have had sight of – is a very promising start. I am intrigued to see what impact PPL will have on our 1st April renewals.”
She adds: “We have joined PPL at a time when it has gained critical mass among London Market players and we are in a good position to be ready to trade when Property & Casualty lines go live in the summer.
Efficient partners
“Global Risk Solutions is a business of more than £1bn and we want to ensure that we are nimble and efficient partners to clients and brokers wherever they are located in the world. We serve multinational customers in more than 170 territories through our global network and we are clear that we want the service levels to be equal the world over.
“We can appreciate the amount of work that is going into ensuring the LM TOM addresses the issues of competitiveness and efficiency that London faces, and we want to be able to share in its success.”