1 Answer Network to launch new IT platform for members

Broker group 1 Answer Network has announced it will be launching a new IT platform later this year for personal and commercial lines trading.

The network will upgrade its current ‘classic’ version to ‘strata’ after joining forces with IT solutions provider CDL after seeing an increase in brokers selling personal and commercial SME products.

1 Answer Network business development director Trevor Cutts said the new platform would be officially launched at the Broker Expo in November.

“We are starting to get a bit more focus on the commercial side because there are more commercial brokers writing commercial,” he said.

“The personal lines brokers are also going into the SME market because generally in personal lines you couldn’t make any money out of it.

“But now we are seeing commercial brokers looking at the personal lines business which has gone up from £350 to £650 in terms of average premium, so there are a lot more earnings that you can get out of that.

“There is a lot of interconnectivity business between commercial and personal lines and I think we have seen a lot more brokers that have started to realise that if they start to do a much broader brush approach in their product range they can wrap their customer up.”

The network’s membership recently surpassed 80 and it is on target to meet its goal of more than 100 members by the first quarter of next year. Gross written premium of its members is now almost £200m.

Cutts said that 1 Answer Network had picked up a number of new members from other networks as brokers start to demand more from their network.

In the future, he expects more consolidation in the network market, while some insurers have already started to change their broker strategies.

He said that Aviva, which ended its arrangement with Towergate-owned Broker Network earlier this month, for one, was starting to work with a lot of independent brokers and not be so reliant on networks.

While premium levels have been increasing, providing an opportunity for brokers to improve their earnings, 1 Answer network managing director Paul Muir has warned against complacency.

“There are signs in some quarters that premiums are being cut again,” he said. “This is too soon. The market needs some stability at sustainable levels of pricing.

“This is not the right moment for another price war with competitors chasing rates back to unsustainable levels.”