Guy Carpenter will not work with any managing agent from 2008, that does not process claims electronically.
The reinsurance broker, which is part of the Marsh & McLennan Companies, said it intends to mandate the use of Electronic Claims File (ECF) for all in-scope claims in the Lloyd’s markets.
This will come into force from 1 January 2008.
From next year, managing agencies that have not signed up to the repository rules and repository agree-ment with Xchanging, and therefore are unable to trade electronically, will not be offered lead lines on Guy Carpenter’s 2008 business.
Geoff Bromley, Guy Carpenter’s chairman of European and Asian operations, said: “ECF significantly improves the current London market claims process by removing paper.”
The move could now pave the way for other companies to do the same.
Marsh admitted it wanted all new claims processed electronically by the end of 2007, but was unable to confirm whether it planned to mandate the use of ECF.
Guy Carpenter’s decision pre-empts that of Richard Ward. Last month, Ward warned the market that if the take up of ECF did not improve he would introduce measures including mandating com-panies to do so.
A spokesman for the Market Reform Group (MRG), the senior body responsible for driving process reform in the London market, said: “The Guy Carpenter announcement on the use of ECF demonstrates the momentum behind the improvement of claims processing and of the reform programme as a whole.”
