Global brokers, need global solutions
In this article, we explore how Trace is leading the way in delivering the right solutions to keep the world’s leading brokers one step ahead, worldwide.
The reinsurance market is big business, with US$200billion of GWP written each year, globally. Of this total, $50billion is placed directly between insurers and reinsurers, leaving $150billion to be handled by brokers.
Of these global brokers, Trace currently supports five of the top ten, worldwide. We therefore well understand the challenges that global brokers face and how innovation and digitalisation can help to support their bottom-line in a fiercely competitive marketplace.
Survival of the fittest
The global reinsurance market is like no other, in that the top three brokers control 60% of the brokered business (US$90billion), with other smaller, specialist brokers sharing the rest between them.
The major brokers often win business due to their extensive global resources, investments in risk modelling and reciprocal relationships across the market. This means the smaller brokers need to find other ways to survive and thrive.
Emerging digital platforms such as Akinova, Tremor, Whitespace, and start-up Riskbook, may level the playing field to some extent. It is early days, but these solutions have the potential to give SME reinsurance brokers significantly increased access to more business and capacity, worldwide.
Where does Trace fit in?
The prediction of many, that reinsurance brokers will have a significantly reduced role in the future due to natural pressures to disintermediate, has so far proved unfounded. It remains, however, critical for brokers to reduce costs and increase operational efficiencies, by digitalising their business, if they are to maintain a competitive advantage.
This is where Trace plays a vital role, with our flagship solution OpenTWINS having been adopted by many leading global brokers to support the complete broking life cycle, worldwide; with OTMessaging, our market-leading messaging solution, helping them to maximise the benefits of e-Trading.
Trace’s solutions enable brokers, large and specialist, to reduce costs and improve client service by streamlining processes. We also facilitate improved connectivity and integration across global broker networks, worldwide. This enables our broker clients to enhance process automation, for instance cutting out double data entry between offices, which is still a significant issue for some global brokers.
Working in partnership
What’s more, through ongoing development, we are evolving our technology to meet brokers’ future needs in a dynamic and ever-changing environment. This involves working in close collaboration with our broker clients and the wider market to understand exactly where and how digitalisation can be implemented, creating solutions that are then leaner, faster and more effective.
For brokers, this translates into twice-yearly updates at no additional cost, and the assurance that their platform is at the forefront of market, industry and commercial requirements.
This symbiotic, partnership-led approach has a direct impact on our clients’ bottom-line, as Trace’s solutions enable them to process more business, with fewer people, more accurately, whilst meeting all their financial, compliance, regulatory and auditory needs.
The market leader, supporting the market leaders
Trace proudly counts five of the top ten reinsurance brokers worldwide as clients, and future development partners, including Guy Carpenter, which with one of our other clients JLT Re is now No1 in the world, just nudging ahead of AON.
This position allows us to create truly global solutions, in partnership with the best in the business. And because our technology is based on an open architecture, each client automatically benefits from system upgrades developed by others.
Additional top ten reinsurance brokers that we are working with include UIB, Capsicum Re and Beach and Associates. Whilst significantly smaller than the big three, these brokers are also constantly looking to deliver better returns for shareholders and a superior service to clients.
This is where Trace adds proven value above and beyond any other technology provider, whether for new clients such as Beach and Associates, or Capsicum Re who have grown from a start-up to a top ten reinsurance broker, as a valued Trace client, to UIB, who have trusted our solutions for 30 years to support their operational success, worldwide.
Importantly, Trace doesn’t just support reinsurance brokers. Our solutions are equally effective with market-leading insurance brokers, such as Miller. Leading specialist broker Miller has a large internal development team that develops their own systems, which all integrate very well with OpenTWINS, including CRM, Binder management and a quote and bind system.
Our solutions enable brokers to process more business, with fewer people, more accurately. All while meeting their financial, compliance, regulatory and auditory needs.
Continuous investment in innovation
Trace, as an employee-owned market leader, has been at the forefront of innovation and technology change in the insurance market since 1984.
We delivered the London market’s first ever e-Messaging solution, to Acord standards, and Trace was the first to achieve market-readiness for PPL integration. As well as PbS, available to brokers at no extra cost.
Today, OpenTWINS enables global brokers to full integrate systems and data across their office networks from the US and Singapore to London and Labuan. One of the very few solutions in the market that can seamlessly do this.
Looking ahead, we will continue to invest in the future, to develop new innovations and to support our global broker clients, as well as the wider insurance market, with scalable, future-proof systems that are fast-to-implement and easy and intuitive to use for brokers.
On that note, there is lots more in the pipeline, so watch this space for OpenTWINS 9.0, to be announced very soon.
Trace proudly counts five of the top ten reinsurance brokers worldwide as clients, and future development partners, enabling us to create truly global solutions.
What next?
If you are interested in knowing more, get in touch with Helen Sainsbury, Director at helen.sainsbury@tracegroup.com for a demo or to start exploring your options.
Sign up for new alerts