Lloyd's has announced two initiatives which, it said, would give brokers and underwriters new information on the checks carried out by Xchanging Ins-sure Services (XIS).

XIS, which is part-owned by Lloyd's, provides technical services in four broad categories: outsourcing; processing; business process services; and IT infrastructure

The schemes have been designed to reduce the risk of agreements and policies being rejected, and help to achieve contract certainty in the Lloyd's market, it said.

Lloyd's head of business process reform Iain Saville launched the initiatives. He said they marked “a significant step towards contract certainty".

For the first time, a report will be issued to the market outlining binding authority agreements rejected by XIS checking in 2004, and the main reasons for those rejections.

Brokers and underwriters will also be able to download from the Lloyd's website the standard checks for each subclass of binding authorities which XIS carries out on instruction from Lloyd's.

Saville said the new information would enable brokers and underwriters to engineer compliance with the checks into their placing processes.

Lloyd's said it planned to expand the information to cover all types of business by July 2005.