Any company who wishes to bind insurances and/or issue documents on behalf of a Lloyd's underwriter must first be approved to act as a Lloyd's Coverholder by completing the application process. Each applicant requires a sponsoring Lloyd's Broker and Managing Agent, who perform their own due diligence of the application before it is submitted to the Lloyd's Delegated Authority Team.
Delegated Authrorities
View all 'Delegated Authrorities'Starting an application
ATLAS is a secure website which acts as an electronic filing and online application system for all coverholders.
The sponsoring Broker or direct dealing Managing Agent must start the application on ATLAS. This will generate a unique Coverholder PIN. e.g. (111000ABC).
The coverholder will need access to the application in order to complete and to sign off that the information is valid. For a coverholder to gain access to ATLAS, a Broker or Managing Agent will need to start an application on ATLAS first. The coverholder can then fill out the ATLAS user application form, which can be found below. Confirmation and instructions will be sent to users once access has been granted.
Access ATLAS user application formEvery employee that requires access to ATLAS must register for a Lloyds.com account and have read and agreed to the ATLAS Terms and Conditions.
You can find more information on what will be asked within a coverholder application and further guidance below:
ATLAS terms and conditions
View example application form to become a Lloyd's approved coverholderApplications being sponsored by a Managing Agent meeting their expected maturity ratings
When the application has been submitted to the Managing Agent via ATLAS, the Managing Agent is required to contact the Lloyd’s Country Manager, in the relevant territory, where the applicant is.
Details of the Country Manager contacts can be found on Crystal.
Referral criteria
Some applications will require additional conversations or reviews by internal Lloyd’s teams. These could be based on regulatory, underwriting, customer outcomes or delegated authority referrals. The sponsoring Managing Agent is required to review the Lloyd’s referral criteria and assess if the proposed application will require any further discussions within Lloyd’s. The referral criteria and risk code mapping document explain the additional information that is required to be provided for these referrals.
Referral criteriaNote - Please do not submit the application to Lloyd’s until you have spoken to the Country Manager and any additional referrals have been completed. We will return any applications which do not follow the process correctly.
Attestation
A signed attestation, confirming the proposed coverholder meets all the necessary requirements to become a Lloyd’s Coverholder; will need to be signed by the Managing Agent and submitted with the coverholder application. Sponsoring Managing Agents who meets their relevant expectations under the Principles for Doing Business, are no longer required to submit a decision paper. Lloyd’s will rely on the due diligence that a Managing Agent has carried out and their overall assessment of that coverholder.
Lloyd’s Insurance Company SA (“Lloyd's Europe”) is an Insurer authorised and regulated by the NBB and the FSMA, with its Head Office registered in Brussels, Belgium. Lloyd’s Europe as an insurer is a platform to allow Lloyd’s Underwriters continued access to European business following the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union.
All business written via Lloyd’s Europe is 100% reinsured to Lloyd’s Underwriters. The Managing Agent (referred to as Service Provider for Lloyd’s Europe) via outsourcing agreements, performs coverholder onboarding and ongoing oversight activity on behalf of Lloyd’s Europe. While activity is outsourced to the Managing Agent, Lloyd's Europe remains responsible for all activity outsourced to Managing Agents and Coverholders, in the distribution of an insurance contract. As a result, Lloyd’s Europe is required to complete a review of Coverholders that are being sponsored by Managing Agents.
The process for Lloyd’s Europe is slightly different due to regulatory requirements. At the same time the Country Manager is holding the conversations with the Managing Agent and prospective coverholder; the Lloyd’s Europe DA Team will also need to carry out a separate review of the coverholder application on ATLAS. This involves an internal review and potentially some further discussions with the Managing Agent.
For all Lloyd’s Europe applications, please contact the Lloyd’s Europe Delegated Authorities inbox LloydsEurope.DelegatedAuthority@lloyds.com at the same time as submission to the local Country manager(s).
When contacting Lloyd's Europe, your due diligence of the coverholder should be at a stage where Lloyd's Europe can undertake its own checks to satisfy its own regulatory obligations, at the same time as allowing you to finalise your due diligence.
Lloyd’s Europe will need to provide its sign off prior to submission of the attestation
(if you are a Managing Agent that meets the relevant expectations under the Principles of Doing Business).
Lloyd’s Europe applications have a separate attestation that needs to be submitted, which can be found in the “attestation” section above.
Twin binders
If an applicant coverholder wishes to hold both a Binding Authority Agreement (BAA) and a coverholder Appointment Agreement (CAA), then this also triggers a referral to Lloyd’s Europe. We expect a Lloyd’s Europe referral and approval to be obtained alongside the usual Lloyd’s process. Both Lloyd’s and Lloyd’s Europe attestation forms will be required when ready.
For general enquiries related to Lloyd’s Europe coverholder applications, please contact LloydsEurope.DelegatedAuthority@lloyds.com
All the above points being completed, once the application is submitted to Lloyd’s with the attestation, the Lloyd’s DA Team will then carry out the formal registration process.
Applications being sponsored by a Managing Agent not meeting their expected maturity ratings
If the sponsoring Managing Agent is not meeting the relevant expectations under the Principles for Doing Business, they are required to submit a completed decision paper, with the ATLAS application and Lloyd’s will also carry out an assessment of the proposed coverholder.
The decision paper should be completed by the sponsoring Managing Agent.
Please contact the Lloyd’s Delegated Authorities Team for a copy of the decision paper.
Coverholder Undertaking
Lloyd's requires all coverholders to sign an undertaking, which reflects the coverholder's relationship with Lloyd's. The undertaking sets out, in clear terms, what Lloyd's expects of coverholders when they deal with their customers, clients, Lloyd's brokers, managing agents and Lloyd's. The undertaking is designed to formalise the high standards demonstrated by and expected of all coverholders at Lloyd's. The coverholder undertaking forms part of Lloyd's delegated underwriting requirements.
By signing the undertaking, the applicant agrees to act in line with the terms of its binding authority and any local requirements of the territory in which it is based or in which it will trade, provide services or do business.
The applicant also agrees to certain conditions that would apply if Lloyd’s withdrew its approval or otherwise stopped it from accepting business under a binding authority. The undertaking needs to be wet signed (electronic signatures are not accepted) and uploaded to ATLAS.
Attaching the Signed Undertaking
To attach a signed copy of the undertaking select Add a Document. When choosing a title aim for something self explanatory such as 'Coverholder Undertaking' or 'Undertaking Signed 31/12/20XX'.
The undertaking should be un-restricted to all companies involved in this change.
The Innovation Coverholder Approval Process removes barriers for Managing Agents looking to support ‘experimental’ insurance products. These are likely to be small start-up MGA’s, offering new innovative products and fall outside of or offer innovative solutions for Lloyd’s traditional lines of business.
Innovation takes many forms. Lloyd’s does not define innovation and will consider proposals on a case-by-case basis, but generally, innovation experiments contain one or more of the following:
We do not believe the following constitutes innovation:
As per the standard coverholder approval process, the application will need to be started and submitted via ATLAS.
If you have a coverholder application which falls within the innovative category, the sponsoring Managing Agent should contact coverholders@lloyds.com to discuss this proposal further once they have started their own due diligence.
We will likely hold further discussions and ask the sponsoring Managing Agent to provide thorough details about the entity applying, product and due diligence undertaken.
This will include, but is not limited to:
How do we define innovation?
Innovation takes many forms. Lloyd’s does not define innovation and will consider proposals on a case-by-case basis, but generally, innovation experiments contain one or more of the following:
- Provides solutions for major new risks that are not generally covered in the Lloyd’s market
- Uses new technologies to operate the contract in a ‘smart’ way (eg to determine if loss triggers have been met and/or to assess claims)
- Uses new technologies to price or quantify risks
- Explores new methods of distribution
- Delivers a major simplification in some regard – e.g. fast claims payments; clarity of coverage
- Explores new ways to create capacity or consortia for innovation
We do not believe the following constitutes innovation:
- Writing a risk that is new to you but common within the Lloyd’s market
- A product that you have already written for a number of years without material changes Small changes to wordings of current business or the addition of minor new risks as customer needs evolve.
As per the standard coverholder approval process, the application will need to be started and submitted via ATLAS.
If you have a coverholder application which falls within the innovative category, the sponsoring Managing Agent should contact coverholders@lloyds.com to discuss this proposal further once they have started their own due diligence.
We will likely hold further discussions and ask the sponsoring Managing Agent to provide thorough details about the entity applying, product and due diligence undertaken.
This will include, but is not limited to:
- Concept and details around the coverholder applicant
- Product overview
- Data and pricing
- Business projections
- Customer identity and marketing plan
- Customer journeys, including any operational systems used
- Risks and mitigation