EPS, the Electronic Placing Support system is a Joint Market Initiative which enables brokers and underwriters to negotiate and place and place business both face to face or remotely, using PCs and terminals.
ECA, the Electronic Closing and Accounting process encompasses the functions carried out to enable the Lloyd’s Policy Signing Office to perform the following activities on behalf of the subsidiary underwriter:
- Validate, record and advise the details of the insurance contract and the Lloyd’s share of the monies due;
- Facilitate settlement of the monies due;
- Validate or produce the necessary insuring documentation.
The implementation and development of such systems moves very rapidly and students should therefore watch for the most up-to-date comments and reports in the insurance press.
In mid-1996 there are reports in the press that the placing of risks electronically is as yet far from becoming the standard procedure. Teething troubles prompt brokers and underwriters to resort to old manual procedures or to duplicate work by using both systems.
G3 OTHER FUNCTIONS OF LLOYD’S
It will be recalled from chapter three that Edward Lloyd started to give shipping news in his coffee shop some 300 years ago. This service has been increased many-fold so that today Lloyd’s is the leading source of shipping information in the world. Information is received daily from all over the world by the Intelligence Department which distributes the information through various publications;
- Lloyd’s List is a daily newspaper dealing with matters of general interest to shipowners and