Panelists at a recent event held by ACORD, the international standard-setting body for the re/insurance industry, expressed a belief that straight-through processing is the only viable long-term solution to tackling the re/insurance industry’s ongoing challenge with out-of-control expense ratios.
The event, entitled Global Reinsurance and Large Commercial (GRLC) Framework – Empowering London Market Straight-Through Processing, covered a number of issues including placement, claims, technical accounting and settlement from both an insurer and broker perspective.
Participants included Simon Squires and Helen Griffiths from AXA XL, Tunu Sokiri from BRIT and Julie Gooch from Willis Towers Watson.
Chris Newman, Managing Director of ACORD in London, said, “Today’s session highlighted that those who have made great progress towards straight-through processing haven’t done so overnight.”
“The scale of change can be overwhelming and a common success factor is to start small – run tests, fix bugs, get comfortable and confident with the process then roll it out more widely.”
“Those who have successfully been through the process have found that the costs associated with implementation don’t arise from flaws in the technology or the standards, but rather from human error in using them,” added Newman.
“The success of straight-through processing isn’t just about implementing a system and adopting standards but on managing the change around them, shifting people’s mindsets, making them aware of the benefits and providing them with adequate training.”
“But the good news is that the infrastructure exists to drastically reduce the administrative burden on all stakeholders in the insurance value chain by using one set of consistent, inter-linked, GRLC messages that build a straight-through processing model for commercial insurance transactions.”
“The ability to have everyone plug into the same system removes a huge amount of pressure on re/insurers and brokers. People have been developing a range of platforms to help enable straight-through processing but the lynchpin is that we all need to be talking the same language – ACORD Standards deliver that consistency.”
