Modernisation of Lloyd’s is the main priority

Europe

The appointment of Richard Ward as the new chief executive of Lloyd’s suggests that dragging the market into the electronic age is a high priority for the Lloyd’s authorities; particularly since the demise of Kinnect, the electronic trading platform which was funded by Lloyd’s. Mr Ward, who has no previous experience of the insurance industry, masterminded the transformation of the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), where he served as chief executive, from a traditional trading system to a fully electronic one. It was widely noted that for the first time in Lloyd’s 400 year history that both the market’s chief executive and the chairman had no previous experience of insurance.