Global speciality insurer and reinsurer Brit Limited (Brit) has today announced its plans to collaborate with Google Cloud to launch Ki – the first fully digital and algorithmically driven Lloyd’s of London syndicate. Ki will operate as a standalone business and aims to redefine the commercial insurance market as a “follow-only” syndicate and will be launched in 2021.
Ki’s algorithm will evaluate Lloyd’s policies and automatically quote for business through a digital platform that brokers can access directly. It aims to significantly reduce the amount of time and effort that it takes for brokers to place their follow capacity. Ki will follow several ‘nominated’ lead syndicates across the Lloyd’s market, including Brit, and will offer brokers a line on every risk in the selected classes led by these markets.
The CEO of Brit, Matthew Wilson, said that he believes Ki is a significant milestone for the insurance market and that, over time, Ki will look to play a core role in the digital transformation of the specialist insurance market in London by creating a fully digital segment which will operate seamlessly alongside the traditional marketplace.
“Recent events have demonstrated the importance of electronic trading and I expect Ki to be at the forefront of the accelerated transition in how the Lloyd’s market transacts business,” he said. “Through building a truly quantitative-based approach to insurance, Ki aims to do what quantitative hedge funds did to Capital Markets in the 1990s.”
The head of financial services at Google Cloud, Adrian Poole, said that the business is proud to be the cloud provider for Ki and to collaborate with Brit in this transformation project within the London insurance market. He believes that this is an exciting first step by Brit to support the “Future at Lloyd’s” vision.
Meanwhile, the CEO of Lloyd’s of London John Neal said: “Ki truly embraces all that is represented in ‘The Future at Lloyd’s’ by bringing data, technology, innovation and artificial intelligence to the fore in the complex world of corporate and specialty underwriting. It is an exciting first for Lloyd’s and paves the way for others to follow.”
The head of innovation at Brit, James Birch, and the Brit Innovation team have led the incubation of Ki which will be run by a dedicated team reporting to Mark Allan, Group CFO at Brit, who will act as executive chair. Ki will be backed by Brit, Fairfax and other private capital investors.
