PPL Next Gen, the new version of the London insurance market’s electronic trading platform, has been opened to placements for the entire market following four weeks of limited access while market firms completed training and preparation activities.
During this time, the platform was also tested to ensure any “teething issues” were resolved before it was extended to the broader market, PPL’s management said, but no significant problems were found.
All market businesses that have signed Market User Agreements (MUA) with PPL now have access to the platform to begin trading on their cut-over date – the date at which the business has elected to begin moving business from the original PPL v3 platform to PPL Next Gen.
“From 3 April, PPL Next Gen is available to any market business that’s ready to use it to place business,” said Joe Gordon, CEO of PPL. “We’ll be monitoring the platform’s status closely and offering support to any businesses that would like it.”
The Next Gen 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.
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.
“Since PPL Next Gen went live on 6 March, market businesses have been completing their training programmes,” Gordon continued. “We’ve also been using what we call pathfinder placements to exercise the platform and iron out any teething issues. I’m pleased to say nothing significant has been reported so we’re in a good place to move to broad market adoption.”
“We’ve spent months working to get PPL Next Gen to this stage,” he went on. “Now we’re effectively handing it to the market so businesses can reap the benefits it offers. We’re encouraging brokers to cut over to the new platform as soon as practical and encouraging insurers to complete their MUA process. It is in everyone’s interests to shorten the period during which the market is using both systems concurrently.”
