Future at Lloyd’s programme set to place innovation “front and centre”

Technology will drive much needed efficiency in the marketplace and once this has been achieved, innovation around the end product can really take off, according to Talbir Bains, founder and chief executive of Volante Global.

The Future at Lloyd’s programme has laid the foundations for technology to drive operational efficiency and focus back on the underwriting piece to bring back results, Talbir Bains, founder and chief executive of Volante Global told The Insurer.

“The Lloyd’s programme has brought about so many changes since the roots began last year with John Hancock’s remediation around the syndicates,” he said.

“The way John Neal is bringing about that vision should mean innovation [will] take the front and centre lead into bringing innovative solutions to all of the problems we face as an industry around cost, underwriting results and around bringing new solutions to clients which is ultimately what we’re here for,” he added.

Technology is the cornerstone of Volante’s global underwriting mission and while Bains believes technology and insurtech is a key differentiator in the MGA space, he said it boils down to two things.

“Part of it is the modernisation of our process and to be frank, apart from modern algorithms that you might use in drone insurance, for example, the rest of the market in its day to day commercial insurance activity just needs to modernise its process to bring it into a modern century and be fit for purpose to reduce cost,” he said.

The second part is the innovation that then comes after that.

“Once you’re in a state where you’ve got a good process, low cost, reasonable, stable underwriting results, then you can start to think about innovation which might enhance the end product from the carriers perspective,” he added.

The Volante journey began just less than two years ago and already, the business has experienced significant growth in this relatively short period of time.

“We’ve come a long way since the start and we’ve got 10 underwriting teams trading across a number of P&C lines of business, across a number of territories, but the key to our success is our technology and our alignment with our underwriting partners – both strategic and long-term.

Talking about what’s next for the business, Bains is committed to Volante’s current strategy and commitments.

“What’s next for us is to fulfil on those commitments we’ve made to carriers, to our underwriters and to the market,” he said.

“We promised to bring an alignment that wasn’t seen before in the industry between the MGA and the carrier and for the remainder of 2019 and 2020 [it is] really about shutting the doors and making sure we deliver on those commitments,” he added.