Lloyd’s announced that Kinnect, its new electronic risk placement system, is up and running, as international broker Willis passed the first risk through it yesterday.
The Kinnect platform, originally called the “Blue Mountain Project,” was funded and developed by Lloyd’s to provide technology and supporting services that will enable brokers and underwriters to exchange data electronically. Willis is one of six initial customers that are set to use the new system. Marsh is also participating along with several Lloyd’s businesses.
Speaking at the Chartered Insurance Institute Conference last September Lloyd’s CEO Nick Prettejohn described it as comprising “a core platform and a set of business support services.” Customers can connect with it through a browser or their own systems. By creating a single interface Kinnect “means that customers don’t have to interface separately to all their trading partners,” he continued.
Kinnect’s Chief Executive, Ashok Gupta, stated: “This is a defining moment for Kinnect. Everything we’ve done over the last two years has been laying the foundations for the first risk to be placed using our platform. Our thanks go to the Willis team for all their help and support this year.
“This is a big step towards our goal – for Kinnect to be adopted across the insurance industry, bringing improved efficiency and reducing errors by cutting out the endless re-keying of data from one system into another.”
Willis CEO Joe Plumeri seemed equally pleased, stating: “We’re delighted to be the first users of the Kinnect Platform. Willis is determined to play a leading role in the use of new technology to improve the efficiency and service of the insurance industry. By working with Kinnect we can help to accomplish that.
“Kinnect enables us to send risk data to a wide range of underwriters, and for the market to respond quickly and efficiently to bind that risk. That can only be good for our clients and good for the industry as a whole.”
Kinnect is an important element in Lloyd’s reform of business processes along with its partnership with Xchanging for back office processing. Iain Saville, Lloyd’s Head of Business Process Reform and Kinnect’s new Chairman, stated: “This first transfer of data shows the industry’s commitment to modernise its processes to reduce risk, and improve speed and efficiency. Electronic capture and secure storage of risk data is a major step to improving contract certainty, and reinforces the recent adoption of the LMP slip in our drive to the goal of contract certainty at inception.
“A number of key players in Lloyd’s are working with Kinnect. I expect that it will quickly build critical mass in the months ahead, so that it becomes a key technology enabler for the industry as a whole.”
Kinnect currently operates in the United States and United Kingdom. For more information on the system go to: www.kinnect.com.
Topics Excess Surplus Lloyd's
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