London 30th May 2008
Letts Keynote Speaker at eInsurance Symposium
Alex Letts, Chief Executive of electronic trading service RI3K will be the keynote speaker at MarketScout's 2008 eInsurance Symposium. Mr. Letts will speak about the entrepreneurialism, innovation and challenges that needed to be overcome in creating the world's first commercial insurance trading "exchange".
"The immense technical complexities in creating a network of 200 companies trading on one Internet platform have been overcome by innovations unheard of in the insurance industry five years ago" says Letts. "But the real challenge has been the constant need to listen, adapt, flex and innovate in face of an entrenched industry."
Taking place from 15th to 17th September in Dallas, Texas, the 2008 eInsurance Symposium seeks to highlight the entrepreneurial spirit in the insurance industry and the innovative ways insurance companies and brokers are growing in the current soft market. Executives from many major insurance companies will present keynote addresses that will focus on various aspects of entrepreneurial innovation and online initiatives taking place in the insurance industry.
In addition to the keynote addresses, the Symposium will feature breakout sessions that will focus on how insurance professionals can leverage current technologies and processes to increase their production, efficiency and profitability. Sessions include online marketing, reputation management, a foreign language web initiative and a panel discussion on insurance technology.
The Symposium will also feature a number of companies exhibiting their products and services. These exhibitors will be showcasing the technology and entrepreneurial services being discussed in the seminars. Having these companies on hand will allow registrants to significantly narrow the gap between education on a new capability and implementation of these services.
To attend the Symposium register online at http://www.einsurancesymposium.com
Media Contact
Roddy Langley
Lysander PR
roddy@lysanderpr.com
+44 (0) 7740 633 296
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Insurance DayLondon 19th May 2008
Three more ACORD Awards for RI3K
Following last year's unprecedented six ACORD Awards, the electronic trading service RI3K has won three more this year making a total of 13 awards to date.
Chief Executive Alex Letts commented: "This continued recognition of RI3K's achievements in standardisation of trading is now reflected by the fact that nearly 200 companies are now trading in a way that was unimaginable three years ago."
RI3K won the following three awards at the 2008 ACORD Awards ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada:
- International Implementation
- Shared Service and/or Infrastructure Platform, Middleware Award
- Early Adopter Award
26th November 2007
RI3K simplifies pricing tariff
Responding to market criticisms over its pricing, electronic trading service RI3K is publishing a simplified pricing tariff. Carriers will now be able to select one from a menu of three clear options for using the service.
Uncertainty about the cost of electronic trading has become a major talking point in the London market with the commitment of Aon UK to trading electronically. RI3K has moved to allay concerns caused by lack of clarity. The Standard service costs £50 per bound line, and this price includes the delivery of the ACORD quotation, bound line and signed line data to carriers messaging gateways. The tariff also includes options for more detailed data interchange.
"If an average sized carrier binds 2000 lines of business a year in London," said RI3K Chief Executive Alex Letts, "and if they receive half of this via RI3K, their cost of e-trading will be £50,000. For this they get the speed and accuracy of management information, a contract certain and less risky process and, of course, the removal of re-keying - all for £50 a risk."
He added: "What we have achieved with electronic placement is to start to move the effort of data entry away from the underwriter. Effectively the broker will do the data entry for carriers. After so much money has been wasted in this area both in processing and solutions, if you had told the market leaders that the cost of electronic trading would eventually be so low, they would have bitten your arm off."
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Market utility to promote Bermuda’s growth
Hamilton, Bermuda: At the 21st Bermuda Reinsurance Congress today, business process outsourcing company Xchanging and paperless trading service RI3K reveal plans for a dedicated Bermuda market utility.
At a joint presentation at the Congress, the initial service, available from 1 November 2007, will be unveiled as part of a straight-through processing Bermuda platform, which is aimed to be fully operational by late 2008.
This Bermuda Utility is being tailored to support the island’s growth opportunities, currently under threat from shortages of suitably qualified people and space. Initially it will enable companies to outsource accounting and claims functions, linked to the international financial settlement infrastructure. During early 2008 it will extend to include the ability for companies to manage electronic closings. It will also be offering interfaces directly into broker and underwriting systems.
The final phase will see the launch in July 2008 of the Bermuda Market Utility, including a market directory and a dedicated Bermudian document repository.
“The aim is to provide the island with a centralised resource that supports growth and reduces non competitive processes, initially around accounting and clearing,” says Steven Beard, Xchanging’s Executive Director. “This is a staged roll-out, in co-ordination with the companies and island authorities. The end result will be a local Bermudian Utility, linked to a global clearing and processing infrastructure.”
“A local utility, sitting on a global infrastructure for trading, clearing, processing, clearing and settlement will offer Bermudian companies a new vista of growth, unconstrained by physical limitations,” adds Alex Letts, Chief Executive of RI3K.
“The immediate practical deliverables are the first steps along the road to a platform which will give a full suite of electronic insurance services to Bermuda's reinsurers and brokers by the end of 2008 .”
20th September 2007
Aon’s Paperless Specialty
London: London, 20th September 2007: The paperless trading service RI3K has announced that its service with Aon has now been extended to include the specialty and direct divisions as well as treaty reinsurance.
This means that the majority of large commercial business distributed by Aon from its London operations will now be electronic.
Aon began the process of migrating to more streamlined paperless distribution earlier this year, after it had successfully connected its own contract production system to the RI3K Marketplace. Contracts created inside Aon are offered to markets via the RI3K service without rekeying. The RI3K service allows the broker to select the relevant markets for the contract, and to manage the transaction through binding, signing down and endorsement. The signed contract is then passed back to Aon’s system and the ACORD standard trading data is sent to the underwriter systems.
“We are re-engineering our distribution and placement process to support market-wide modernisation”, said Ian Summers, Director of Change Strategy, Aon. “It follows the excellent progress we have made in reinsurance, and now we are extending these benefits to the rest of our clients’ business.”
“Information that used to take months to circulate around the market can now reach all parties in the blink of an eye, and can be processed without vans or multiple data entry with all the mistakes and high costs that these incur. It’s an inevitable and necessary evolution.”
“A record of the full placement process and audit trail of all transactions is accessible for the underwriters. As soon as they are agreed, signed lines are notified without delay to underwriters,” says, RI3K Chief Executive Alex Letts.
“It also provides carriers with greater certainty around the contract, and eliminates the cost and possible errors associated with manual re-keying. This, in turn, reduces the potential for degradation of information provided to underwriters.”
Aon has begun the process of consultation with its markets over its plans and expects to see “significant” volumes of business beginning the migration to paperless trading by October 1st.
10th September 2007
RI3K launches a new electronic message service
RI3K announces today the completion of its new message service for the insurance and reinsurance industry. The service has undergone significant trials to ensure that it is scalable, secure and fit for purpose.
The RI3K Message Service has been designed to exchange placement, accounting and settlement data between brokers and carriers regardless of which back office systems they have implemented.
The solution provides straight through processing to Xchanging and data can be transformed in any format ranging from straightforward email to ACORD standard xml.
The technology behind this service is being provided by Kewill Systems Plc (Kewill) - a leading global provider of business integration and data messaging solutions. Kewill has a 35 year heritage in managing complex trading partner relationships and through its managed services solutions handles millions of transactions a month for many vertical markets, including insurance.
"It was in no-one's interest for RI3K to create its own technology for this crucial part of the market infrastructure" said Alex Letts, RI3K's Chief Executive. "Partnering with a world class company with proven, industrial strength data handling technologies makes sense for us and for the market. Kewill has all the skills and resources to take on user integrations which will ensure an electronically joined-up market. They are ACORD members which means they support the drive to standardisation."
Jacquie Boast, Chief Marketing Officer and COO Kewill Business Integration said: "RI3K's Message Service, underpinned by Kewill trusted technology backbone, will provide robust electronic trading to support more efficient distribution and transparency in the industry."
Richard Ward, Chief Executive of Lloyd's commented: "A big part of market modernisation is linking up the market's companies to an electronic infrastructure. We support any developments that help achieve this."
London back office service provider Xchanging has been involved in the project to ensure an easy roll-out for customers. It will ensure that Xchanging messages can be sourced from the same point. Steven Beard, Executive Director at Xchanging said: "This will make it easier for our customers to trade and receive messages electronically."
James Willison, Managing Director of Web Connectivity, added: "As the leading supplier of ACORD gateways, we will establish the very first connection to The RI3K Message Service. This means all our EnabledB2B Underwriter customers can integrate the message flows from RI3K, Aon and other RI3K broker customers directly into their back office applications."
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Unprecedented ACORD Awards for RI3K
London: RI3K has won six awards at the recent 2007 ACORD Awards ceremony in Lake Buena Vista, Florida:
- International Implementation Award
- ACORD Innovative Implementation Award
- Industry Leadership for Straight Through Processing Award
- Shared Service and/or Infrastructure Platform, Middleware Award
- Web Services
- Early Adopter Award
"RI3K has always worked closely with ACORD to create and implement the standards, but now increasingly RI3K is becoming recognised for its role in standardising the industry," says Alex Letts, RI3K's Chief Executive. "Standardised process and protocols are levers for change, and RI3K is pulling hard on those levers," he added.
The ACORD awards follow recent announcements RI3K has signed a long-term contract to provide paperless trading to Lloyd's of London, after a successful implementation for the new Lloyd's China venture based in Shanghai, and that US broker Aon, the world's largest insurance intermediary, has contracted with RI3K to trade from London.
3rd May 2007
City consortium acquires insurance trading service, RI3K
London: IPGL Limited, a private holding company of which Michael Spencer, Group Chief Executive of ICAP plc is the major shareholder, has acquired a stake in the internet insurance trading service RI3K, from Brit Insurance Holdings. IPGL has joined forces with investment fund Eton Park, investment banking and broking group Numis Corporation, and Climate Exchange plc CEO Neil Eckert to acquire a controlling interest. Brit, which has backed RI3K since its establishment in May 2000, has reduced its shareholding from 86% to 19.9% on a fully diluted basis.
The transaction follows the recent announcement that RI3K has signed a long-term contract to provide paperless trading to Lloyd's of London, after a successful implementation for the new Lloyd's China venture based in Shanghai. In addition, US broker Aon, the world's largest insurance intermediary, has also contracted with RI3K to trade from London.
Commercial insurance remains reliant upon paper-based business practices. The RI3K service allows efficient paperless processing of complex insurance contracts, to the benefit of buyers, sellers and their intermediaries. Whilst RI3K's existing users include most of the London market's leading companies, it was Lloyd's recent adoption of the service that crystallised the commitment of the London market to becoming more competitive.
"Migration to electronic trading at the London Stock Exchange increased volumes and remains a key factor in the City being the global centre it is today. The same is happening in insurance," said RI3K's Chief Executive, Alex Letts. "As the insurance industry faces its own transformation, this investment in RI3K secures vital infrastructure for the long haul."
Michael Spencer, Chairman of IPGL said: "It is very exciting that this investment will help take RI3K on to the next stage of its development. The insurance market is primed and ready for paperless trading and we can help RI3K add real value to the global insurance marketplace."
Erland Karlsson, Chief Executive of Eton Park International commented: "Eton Park is pleased to support this innovative business, which offers great benefits for the insurance industry in terms of efficiency, liquidity and transparency. This investment extends Eton Park's track record of investing in businesses positioned at the forefront of the evolution of the insurance and financial services markets."
Oliver Hemsley, CEO of Numis said: "RI3K is the only viable trading service to serve this sector as it is able to handle the whole risk placement process electronically from data collection prior to placement, through quote, bind and endorsement. We think that RI3K is therefore poised quickly to become the market standard. Pressures are mounting in the industry to make business practices more efficient and cost effective. Contract certainty and the need for clear audit trails following regulatory investigations add further to RI3K's value proposition. I am very pleased that Numis is able to participate directly in assisting this exciting industry development."
Dane Douetil, Chief Executive of Brit said: "The sale of our majority stake in RI3K achieves our objective of focusing our business on its core activities. Furthermore, this transaction represents a significant step in the development of RI3K. Our continuing interest in the Company is testament to our belief in its successful future."
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RI3K Announces New "Easy to Use" Trading System
Monte Carlo: The electronic trading service RI3K today announces a revolutionary new version of its trading system. Named "V3", the new system will be rolled out in the run-up to renewals to replace the existing RI3K platform. It will allow users to handle all types and classes of facultative and treaty reinsurance, as well as commercial "direct" insurance.
"This is a completely new animal" say RI3K's Chief Executive Alex Letts. "It is wonderfully intuitive, and many of the heavy processes have been smoothed out. It is so much easier to use."
Key innovations for the new version have been in making the service much more flexible for brokers, allowing them to use their own contracts and wordings on the service, by using the powerful ACORD-based form-builder.
"The form-builder is the sensation," says Letts. "At a stroke it transforms the electronic trading landscape because it preserves differentiation for brokers in their product presentation. Rather than being forced to use RI3K prescribed slips, broking houses will be able to create and store their own ACORD compliant templates in the form-builder whatever type, class or line - fac, treaty or direct. They can add their wordings from their selected sources, and then simply allow their placing brokers to distribute and trade these out over the service."
V3 has also been upgraded with enhanced data integration capabilities. It can be connected to brokers' own slip systems, and it can pass data into peer-to-peer underwriting gateways.
"For companies, V3 is a path to efficient, compliant and cost effective distribution," Letts adds. "But for the actual users themselves, V3 is just a marvellous modern service that makes their day easier and more productive."
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Electronic business growth supports substantial RI3K price cut
Promise to market fulfilled following broker take-up
London: Due to a dramatically changed landscape, RI3K has announced an 80% price cut for underwriters using its electronic marketplace.
For all risks bound on the RI3K Marketplace after 1st August 2006, underwriters will be charged only £50 per line. The previous charge was $500. There will also be a small £10 fee for each endorsement.
RI3K's Marketplace brings risks in a structured, contract certain, auditable format to the desktop of the underwriters. This means that when the risk is bound on-line there is a single record of the placement process and a single copy of the contract wordings, with all its versions.
Alex Letts, RI3K's Chief Executive commented, "Last year we made a commitment to the market that as volumes grew we would work towards a £50 price point. Recent activity around broker distribution has allowed us to bite the bullet and make the move in a single step."
RI3K's Marketplace creates ACORD standard data around the placement process for all types of reinsurance risk. Direct insurance will be tradeable from this September.
"We are working within the FELIX framework to hand-off the data electronically to XIS. We would encourage companies to speak to us about how to receive this data electronically to reduce their own processing costs," added Letts.
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Framework for the Electronic London Insurance eXchange (FELIX) unveiled by RI3K and Xchanging
A framework of business processes, messages and enabling technology services supporting the end-to-end insurance process
At the ACORD Conference in Las Vegas last week, in a joint session with Xchanging entitled "The Year of the First Insurance Exchange," RI3K's Chief Executive Alex Letts introduced FELIX - the Framework for the Electronic London Insurance eXchange.
FELIX is a framework that charts the business processes, messages and enabling market technology services needed to provide an end-to-end electronic insurance exchange. FELIX is specifically not an organisation, but a framework that guides the development of commercial components and services that companies such as Xchanging and RI3K build.
"At a recent meeting with 21 companies from the London market, RI3K and Xchanging were asked to outline a roadmap for delivering all embracing e-commerce and efficiency gains for everyone within the London insurance community," says Alex Letts. "We were told there should be no 'one-fits-all' technology blueprint, and that the watchwords should be Choice, Flexibility and Ease of Entry to dovetail with each individual company's strategy and capabilities."
At the ACORD conference, these watchwords were translated into the principles that will guide the implementation of FELIX:
- ACORD standards as a foundation and a vision
- Small, achievable, financially justifiable steps
- Multiple access methods
- Inclusive for all the London market
Both RI3K and Xchanging are currently working on several projects, typically with market groups or individual brokers/carriers to drive efficiency gains in all areas of the placement to claims insurance process.
"We have been collaborating closely with RI3K to ensure that the results of our individual project efforts will integrate," says Jonathan Bradshaw, Managing Director, Implementation, at Xchanging. "What FELIX does is to articulate both a vision and a roadmap to set the direction for future implementation work."
"Many of the business components for an electronic market infrastructure already exist," adds Letts. "FELIX considers the whole picture describing the technology services, such as a market directory, is needed to ensure that the components work together. The implementation of FELIX will allow every company in the London market - not just a chosen few - to move during 2006 to an electronic solution that completely suits their own business."
The first implementation of FELIX is on target for a September launch.
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RI3K launches into commercial insurance
3 classes ready before Christmas, further 21 by May 2006
RI3K today announces that it will demonstrate its Commercial Insurance electronic trading service by the end November 2005 for International Property, North American Property and Terrorism classes of business. It has confirmed also that it will offer 21 further classes of business by May 2006.
The Commercial Insurance service will run on the same technology platform as RI3K's Reinsurance service and will use the same log-on, interfaces, and security, and will offer the same functionalities.
"The Commercial Insurance service is a mirror image of the Reinsurance service, running on the same, proven technology", says Alex Letts, RI3K's Chief Executive. "It allows brokers to manage quotation, placement, signing-online, signing down and endorsement in a transparent, auditable electronic environment. The full data output is offered to back office systems in ACORD standard format."
RI3K has built the Commercial Insurance service in response to market concerns over the high cost of the transaction process in the subscription market, and to provide a solution that can support the FSA's calls for greater contract certainty in the UK market.
"It's a consolidated service offering insurance and reinsurance trading in one environment. It has one interchange agreement, and it's fully compliant with ACORD, LMP and Contract Certainty requirements," adds Letts. "As it sits on proven, scaleable technology, we can add new classes of business almost on a daily basis. We fully expect to be ready to play our role in helping the UK market meet the FSA Contract Certainty deadline of end 2006".
RI3K says that it intends to make an announcement about its pricing policy for the insurance component in early 2006.
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Xchanging and RI3K: XPressCheck accelerates London Market towards Contract Certainty
Monte Carlo: Xchanging and RI3K have announced an initiative to allow early checking of contracts on-line. The early checking service, XPressCheck, will allow subscriber reinsurers to have their reinsurance policy wordings checked on-line by Xchanging prior to being signed.
"XPressCheck will be a crucial element in the effort to meet the FSA challenges for Contract Certainty", says RI3K Chief Executive, Alex Letts. "RI3K already captures and delivers evidence of the reinsurance transaction in a standard format which is crucial for Contract Certainty. Contract Certainty will be further enhanced through approved slip wordings checked by Xchanging being delivered to subscribers prior to inception."
"This joint initiative will give impetus to Contract Certainty which is designed to reduce the operational and legal risks to brokers and reinsurers whilst improving service levels through speedier processes and improved visibility. It will enhance transparency and support the competitive position of the London Market", says Roger Townsend, an Executive Director of Xchanging.
"Contract Certainty is a global issue", adds Townsend. "Providing the Market with confidence in the proposed policy wording at the earliest stage, is key to achieving the goals of Contract Certainty. The use of XPressCheck is an excellent way of delivering this."
XPressCheck will be available for any contracts on the RI3K service from December 2005. Users can subscribe to XPressCheck by contacting Xchanging.
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