Market utility to promote Bermuda’s growth

Press Releases / 3 October 2007

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 .