James Jacob, Director of Market Services, explains how Davies solutions is continuing to support its clients as the market prepares to undergo dynamic change.

The need for solutions to a range of issues that currently beset the London market remain. At Davies we have built a reputation for the support we provide our clients with premium credit control a particular and ongoing issue across the market.

The key factor when it comes to premium credit control is that the performance of many brokers remains well under par and the market’s efforts to drive efficiencies in the physical collection of premiums will remain a challenge despite the market’s move to Ruschlikon standard under Blueprint 2. The relationships with the brokers remain key to any solutions and at Davies we have been working alongside the market and its brokers for many years and have established the reputation as the service choice for those in the market. The market needs to better engage brokers to participate in the development of those solutions given the role they carry out within the transactional process.

The processes and products we have developed also enables us to add value to the clients premium control services and with it their results. However, there is an increasing recognition from across the market that the issues around premium credit control needs to be addressed as part of the drive towards the greater efficiency of the market processes and those policies and procedures are of particular benefit to the company market.

In addition to the focus on premium credit control the market’s proposed changes are also driving the requirements for more robust and immediate bordereaux management. Risk and premium bordereaux are now being required to provide better control of delegated books of business at a declaration level.

We are seeing a growing number of clients look to challenge the current systems on the data standards around bordereaux. It is creating a demand for our BPO services and product which is likely to increase in the short to medium term especially with the termination of the DDM contract wherein Carriers and Lloyd’s Brussels will still have a requirement for timely reliable & consistent data outputs.

Another growing element of our services is the need to cleanse and validate bordereaux to provide clients with structured declaration data so that they can make better use of risk information, and in doing so enhancing the ability to deliver improved underwriting, actuarial and compliance governance, across their books of business.

Those efficiencies will be key in the months and years to come as the market looks to utilise its data in a more granular way. The benefits of technological change come with the requirement for the skillsets to create the necessary products and manage the new procedures.

The increase in efficiencies around bordereaux management have also created the opportunity for companies to better address the continuing issue of loss funds. The need to better track loss funds has increased in importance, with the growing realisation around the scale of redundant and overstated funds, which have slipped through the cracks in the past due to inefficient underwriting systems and market processes. Davies have worked with our clients to recoup over £150 million in loss funds over the past decade and that experience has only gone to confirm the scale of the problem and the need for a more focused approach to the issue as the market drives forward with FCP. The good news is that FCP should resolve any reoccurrence of the ‘legacy’ loss fund issues, however, to take advantage, reconciliation controls will still need to be undertaken and this is an area we have been supporting the market with.

The market is undergoing change which will bring with it new efficiencies around the transaction of business including digitised bureaux. However, there is a clear need to ensure that efficiency in premium credit control including the visibility of poor performing contracts continue to be identified and brought to account and loss fund recovery and bordereaux management are not allowed to fall off the agenda as the wider market reform process continues.

If you would like to continue the conversation, get in touch with Director of Market Services, James Jacob at james.jacob@davies-group.com