Lloyd’s of London is closing down a £53m-plus electronic
platform after only signing up a handful of insurance underwriters
and brokers to use it.
The Kinnect system was first introduced in 2001, and was
designed to be a central electronic hub for traders to plug into,
using it to share documents and files electronically, instead of
having to physically move them from one building to another.
Kinnect was set up to allow risk information to be quickly
shared so that underwriters and brokers could efficiently put
together policies, and to help Lloyd’s meet compliance demands set
by the Financial Services Authority.
The aim was for 70% of insurance contracts to be processed and
recorded over the system by 2007, but only about 20 companies out
of a possible 215 are currently using the system.
Last spring Lloyd’s executives were highlighting the benefits of
the system. Iain Saville, head of business process reform at
Lloyd’s, told Computer Weekly that Kinnect would help
Lloyd's prove to the Financial Services Authority that it is taking
risk assessment seriously.
He said Kinnect would also reduce the number of errors made
during negotiations for insurance policies, and keep an electronic
record of discussions between brokers and underwriters to reduce
the likelihood of disputes.
Kinnect is based on Java 2 Enterprise Edition technology and
internet data standards Soap and XML.
Most Kinnect messages have been accredited by Acord, the
international electronic messaging standards agency for the
insurance industry.
"The FSA has said that by the end of this year it wants to see
an end to the 'deal now, detail later' culture in the insurance
industry," said Saville.