Agreement defines service levels, rights and responsibilities.
A user contract for the Insurers’ Market Repository (IMR) contains scheduled improvements that will increase its capacity in line with projected volumes for the next four years.
IMR says that over 40 firms have signed up to the contract including; Catlin, Markel and QBE, Aon, Marsh and Miller.
Negotiations on a new agreement have been conducted between the London market associations; the Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA), International Underwriting Association (IUA) and London Market Insurance Brokers’ Committee (LMBC), and Xchanging, the commercial insurance business processor.
The agreement will take effect for all carriers and brokers from 1 October, 2008. From this date, infrastructure and new services will be delivered by the IMR, which is used for electronic accounting, settlement and claims handling services in the London Market.
David Gittings, chief executive of the LMA said: “For the first time, this agreement provides a defined contractual framework for the provision of infrastructure services and clearly outlines rights and responsibilities, services and service levels.
“Under the new agreement, users will see increased services and improved service levels, enhanced repository availability, better resilience and faster performance.”
Costing £9.4m per annum for the next four years the new contract clearly defines enforceable service levels for the IMR and provides funding for future technology enhancements. Expert legal advice taken from the outset of negotiations has also enabled major improvements to the rights and protections for repository users.
Dave Matcham, chief executive of the IUA, said: “Development of the IMR is a central plank of the London Market’s effort to achieve more efficient business processing.
“The new user agreement will ensure a faster, more robust system while catering for significant increases in traffic over the next four years – including full use of electronic claims files by the company market.”
The repository has been in use by a number of market firms for some time, but under a temporary contract inadequate for the long-term management of performance. A negotiating team was established 12 months ago by the IUA, LMA and LMBC to represent some 250 businesses across the London Market in discussions with Xchanging, the operators of the IMR. The three Associations now share joint responsibility for managing the repository on behalf of the market.
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