Lloyd’s CFO Burkhard Keese is lining up to take on COO duties when incumbent Jennifer Rigby departs towards the end of this month.
The new structure, under which Keese will maintain both roles, is being put in place to facilitate the delivery of Lloyd’s Blueprint Two programme.
That programme is the second phase of the market’s plan to target digital efficiencies. Responsibility for Blueprint Two will fall to Bob James, director of market transformation at Lloyd’s, who joined in the middle of last year.
In a statement accompanying Keese’s appointment to the COO role, John Neal, CEO of Lloyd’s, said, “Throughout the pandemic, Jen’s leadership has been crucial in building flexible solutions at pace that have enabled the Corporation and market to continue to operate effectively. Jen has established firm foundations to underpin the future success of Blueprint Two and we have now announced a new operational structure so that we are best placed to succeed and deliver on our goals. We wish Jen all the best and welcome Bob into his new role.”
Lloyd’s has been working on its digital strategy, called Future at Lloyd’s, for some time, with the initial announcement of Blueprint Two made in November 2020. The process aims to shift the marketplace from a largely paper-based, analogue set of processes to a data-focused, automated, and cost-efficient one.
The focus in 2022, according to Lloyd’s, will be on enhancing the products built last year and rolling them out across the world.
As part of this transformation, the market announced an agreement in May 2021 between itself, DXC Technology, and the International Underwriting Association (IUA) to collaborate on cutting processing costs by 40%. That was first agreed in May 2021.
Last week, Reinsurance News reported further details of the collaboration between the three entities. As we wrote then, the deal between Lloyd’s, DXC Technology, and the IUA will be one of three key changes.
The first important change will see the arrival of a Core Data Record (CDR) with common data standards for policy, premium, and claims, which translates digital processing.
Second, the agreement will see the automation of processes that support placement, policy creation, claims management and accounting, which Lloyd’s says will significantly lower production lead times, promote efficiency and reduce costs, offering improved services to market stakeholders and its customers.
