The Placing Platform Limited (PPL) Next Gen platform has gone live for the London market today following several delays to its roll-out.
The platform aims to improve the original PPL single market solution for electronic placing that allows brokers and insurers to quote, negotiate and bind business electronically.
Joe Gordon, CEO of PPL, which is a not-for-profit company, said the launch of the Next Gen platform marks a “major milestone” for the London market and a “significant step forward on the market’s journey towards digital operation.”
Leaders had initially been confident that the next stage of PPL would be delivered last year, but a launch date in September 2022 had to pushed back for reassessment after it became clear that some elements would not be ready in time.
The Board of PPL later confirmed February 20th, 2023 as the new time to go live, but once again it seems that some factors in the launch perhaps took longer than anticipated to finalise, meaning the platform was delayed in going to market by another two weeks.
On the initial roll-out, Gordon explained that transaction volumes will remain low by design during the first few weeks, which should allow market firms to complete training and preparations, and brokers to upload facilities and risks, in preparation for volume trading from the start of April.
“It’s been a long journey for PPL to get to this point, and we thank our partners across the market for their continued support throughout that period,” Gordon remarked.
Since the first risk was bound on PPL in July 2016, the platform has expanded to cover almost all classes of risks placed in the London market, and is used by around 400 broking and underwriting firms.
As we reported in March of last year, PPL usage was robust in 2021 ahead of the expected introduction of Next Gen, with the platform reporting a 17% rise in the number of risks bound when compared with the previous year, with risks bound moving from 160,346 in 2020 to 187,374 in 2021.
