The insurance industry sees the contract extension as a ’significant step’ in helping Lloyd’s go digital 

The insurance industry has welcomed Lloyd’s of London signing a $465m (£367m) contract extension with DXC Technology to overhaul the insurance marketplace’s IT systems.

Lloyd’s and the International Underwriting Association (IUA) announced the contract extension on 26 May – the parties have agreed on set of services that will safely transition approximately 400 London market insurance companies over the cloud-native digital platform, which runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The agreement also includes provisions for operational resilience in line with new industry regulations.

Supporting the market’s joint venture, DXC will work with Lloyd’s, the IUA and all market associations and participants to transition London market insurance companies to the new digital platform.

This aims to bring significant improvements in both speed and efficiency.

Jason Poonoosamy, Waystone’s deputy chief executive, told Insurance Times: “This kind of partnership is great news and helps accelerate digital transformation in an area of industry that is on a journey to improve its current digital capabilities to better serve its customers.”

On 23 May, institutional provider of services to the asset managment industry Waystone was named as Lloyd’s official investment platform operator.

Prior to this, Lloyd’s teamed up with open architecture firm Schroders Solutions in March, making the firm the platform’s investment advisor. 

Cloud native

At the time of the announcement, Mike Salvino, president and chief executive of DXC Technology, said: “The new digital platform that we are building will transform the London market into one of the most technologically advanced insurance markets in the world.

“This agreement will enable us to support the delivery of the new digital processing services to London insurance market companies – safeguarding their transformation journey.”

This follows DXC Technology reporting an 8.3% dip in annual revenue on 25 May in its fourth quarter and full year financial results for 2022 , which Salvino said were influenced by the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as currency fluctuations.

This agreement is a key milestone in building the Future at Lloyd’s, which will see the insurance marketplace transformed from a largely paper-based, analogue set of processes to one that is data-focused, automated and cost-efficient.

DXC will be reforming the marketplace’s entire IT system by moving it to a cloud native digital platform running on AWS to replace the legacy mainframes, while automating manual processes.

Sheila Cameron, Lloyd’s Market Association’s chief executive, said: “This is a significant step on the journey to digitise the Lloyd’s and London market.

“We look forward to working with our managing agent members, DXC, Lloyd’s and the wider London market, as we build a faster and more cost-efficient, data driven future for the market and its customers.”

Reducing risk exposure

Dave Matcham, IUA’s chief executive, said: “This extension signifies the intent of the joint venture to accelerate the current technological capabilities of company market customers.

“Using technology to adapt quickly to market conditions will give insurance companies confidence that they can modernise their businesses while reducing their exposure to risk.”

John Neal, Lloyd’s’ chief executive, said that Lloyd’s, DXC and the IUA were demonstrating commitment to digitally securing the activities of London market customers in both the long and short term.

“With the Future at Lloyd’s transformation, we will transition to a single platform that will provide automated processing and accounting for the market, leading to a substantial reduction in operating costs and providing customers with a much faster, better service,” Neal said.

 Insurance Times has contacted Amazon Web Services for further comment.