LMA chair says London has technological edge

The Chairman of the Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA) claims the London market is now ahead of its competitors in process modernisation.

Barnabas Hurst-Bannister made the statement to the Association of Lloyd’s Brokers (ALB) in Chicago, and also warned of the risk of bottom line losses if current pricing continues downwards.

Hurst-Bannister gave examples of London market's modernisation of the Market Reform Contract, contract certainty and the increased use of technology for placing risks, settlement of premiums and claims processing.

Hurst-Bannister said: “Where we have not always been so exemplary is in the way in which we have administered business … this gave people the impression that London was an expensive centre to do business in. No longer can this accusation be levelled. The change that I have outlined puts us ahead of our competitors in our approach to processing.

“We are committed to the work that will widen this advantage. As well as making us cheaper and slicker to deal with, our embracing of technology means we are a more open market with which to trade. Business can find us without the need for a local physical base. The modern, flexible and efficient marketplace with which increasingly sophisticated clients would wish to trade in the twenty-first century is being built in London.”

Hurst-Bannister warned ALB delegates of the dangers of underwriters continuing to write below a sustainable price, and added: "Every client, every broker, every capital provider, every reinsurer, every regulator and every underwriter knows that there have been too many periods in which underwriters wrote below the level of which they were capable. And everyone has paid the price. The future is about not paying that price all over again.”