FAQs

For Lloyd’s please email FCP@lloyds.com and for Vitesse email fcpsupport@vitessepsp.com

If you haven’t heard from our team regarding potential onboarding, please email mua@limoss.london.

The FCP process will be embedded within the joint venture – it may evolve over time as we seek to improve Delegated Authority processes overall as part of the JV delivery.

The joint venture is an equal partnership between Lloyd’s of London, DXC Technology and the International Underwriting Association (IUA), that aims to digitise all of the key processes within the Lloyd’s market, moving it from a largely paper-based to a cloud-based marketplace.
The JV is a fundamental part of the Future at Lloyd’s programme. The JV will not impact Vitesse or FCP, it also does not impact the role that Vitesse will play within the marketplace going forward. Lloyds has confirmed that Vitesse will be, and will continue to be the engine that powers FCP.

Improved claims settlement and payment processes will be delivered as part of the joint venture delivery of the International Claims Orchestration Service (ICOS) and its associated components.

LIC is not in the initial scope of FCP and is exempt at the current time. At present EUR BDX cannot be submitted as non-cash and STFO does not support EUR accounts.

Lineage is not in the initial scope of FCP and is exempt at the current time.

No. Payment accounts can be setup in any Vitesse supported currency, which means you can pay claimants in the currency of the binder. However, the ARCs/STFO process only supports USD, GBP and CAD, which means, in the short term, funding accounts will need to be in one of these currencies.

FCP is fully operational for subscription business. FCP requires all managing agents on the binder to be signed up to FCP so please liaise with your broker and partner MAs to determine the appropriate time to begin using FCP for a particular binder.

FCP is a market service administered by LIMOSS. The cost of use of the service will be determined by a combination of the managing agent’s relative size of DA business and volume of binders they put through the platform.

You can see which lead underwriters, following syndicates, brokers and DCAs are “FCP ready” and which are “FCP live” – and what those terms mean - on the LIMOSS FCP website. The LIMOSS website also has self-service training material available to assist you.

It is possible to transfer a binder mid-term on to FCP. The process for doing this is described in the training material. MAs need to ensure they have a plan in place to accommodate this.

When more binders are transferred from loss funds to FCP. This is when the true benefit of FCP will be shown, because of savings in account and transaction fees, as well as the further elimination of the loss fund process.

The market has been involved at every stage of the development of Faster Claims Payment:

• The Vitesse platform was selected via RFI; a panel of market participants was involved in the assessment
• The solution itself was developed with the support of a working group of managing agents and brokers
• A pilot phase was held between July 2021 and April 2022 which consisted of 3 MAs, 2 DCAs and 4 brokers. The decision to launch FCP was taken following the success of this pilot

Please view the best practice guidance a DCA needs to follow before they can adopt the FCP solution.

FCP supports singleton and subscription binders where 100% of the risk is placed in Lloyd’s. Please see further scope guidance on the FCP home page.

Firstly, the broker will upload the binder information to DCOM and tick the FCP flag, thereby confirming that the binder meets all FCP criteria. Following this the lead managing agent should review and approve, and check the FCP flag has been ticked for FCP binders. Please refer to the market support section in the DCOM platform for knowledge articles on how to do this.
The release of DCOM (DCOM 1.5) ensures all data inputted against an FCP binder is validated by the Broker at point of entry.

This is an additional safeguard to ensure the DXC technical processing team doesn't process the BDX as cash and trigger duplicate fund movements.

Yes, FCP is global. Vitesse operate a large network of in-country accounts, allowing direct access into local payment schemes in >100 currencies and >170 countries and territories. In addition, using the SWIFT network, Vitesse can pay to anywhere your bank can.

No, funds are taken directly from managing agent accounts and can be paid to the beneficiary directly.

No, FCP includes the set-up of one funding account per MA/Syndicate with Vitesse. Funds for payments for each binder loaded into FCP will be drawn from this account and it will be topped up on a regular basis, as and when the balance in the funding account falls below the pre-determined threshold.

The Delegated Claims Administrator (DCA) can submit this through the Vitesse Portal. It is recommended the DCA establish an Application Programming Interface (API) between its claims management system and Vitesse to transfer payment requests.

For any new payment account, MAs will provide details on the binder which also includes information regarding binder splits. Currently, payment accounts are then set up manually by Vitesse, and linked to the correct funding accounts at the % splits set out in the binder information. Release 1.5 of the Delegated Contract and Oversight Manager (DCOM) will enable the integration of DCOM with Vitesse. From then on brokers will input the binder details into DCOM, where they are verified by the Lead MA and made available for use by Vitesse via API, eventually removing the need for manual entry by Vitesse.

To mitigate the risk introduced by allowing DCAs to access syndicate funding pots, there is a concept of payment limits. These can be determined per payment account and limit how much DCAs can pay out in a single payment. The default value for this setting is £150k (or currency equivalent). It is at the Lead MA's discretion to determine the payment limit when requesting the setup of a new payment account.
Where DCAs attempt to initiate a payment above the payment limit, payment initiation will fail. DCAs will need to contact the lead MA, who can contact Vitesse Support to request a payment limit increase.

In order to avoid unnecessary delays to payment processing, the Lead MA has the authority to request changes to the payment limit without requiring approval from follows. It is at the Lead MA's discretion to handle any messaging with follows.

For payments that are out of DA limits, there is no change to existing processes. The DCA in question will need to obtain the relevant approvals from the MA, as per their standard operating procedures.

Yes. Contact the Vitesse team at integration@vitessepsp.com for further information on how to implement this.

A managing agent will need to assess the appropriate funding level with your finance teams and/or brokers based on expected claims activity in relation to your FCP binder(s). The funding account balance should be regularly reviewed to ensure the balance is at an appropriate level.

Replenishment of a funding account is triggered by the funds falling below a pre-agreed threshold level. Flexibility in liquidity management is a key benefit of FCP. Weekly replenishment enables MAs to hold less money in the funding account at any one time, freeing it up for other use.

MAs can transfer funds directly to Vitesse, increasing the balance in their Funding Account. Details of how to do this are shared as part of the onboarding material. MAs can use the configurable alerts within the Vitesse platform to ensure they are informed of a low syndicate funding account balance.

MAs can use the configurable alerts within the Vitesse platform to ensure they are informed of a low syndicate funding account balance. They are also able to log into the Vitesse portal to view funding movements and payments of claims.

Lloyd's central Settlement and Trust Fund Office (STFO) is the mechanism which moves funds from Syndicates trust accounts to traditional loss funds. Under FCP these funds would be moved to Syndicate funding accounts held in Vitesse. Funds will be received (by Vitesse) 3 - 4 days after STFO triggers the movement. MAs will receive an Advice notice 2 days before the debit from the trust accounts.

As part of Vitesse's commitment to the long-term success of FCP and the transformation of the London market, Vitesse are offering a FCP Accelerator Support Programme, available at no extra cost, and tailored to each MA’s ecosystem. Contact fcpsupport@vitessepsp.com for more information.

It will include the following:

• Direct access to Vitesse Product and Technical teams for support service via Email, Teams or Slack
  
• Bi-weekly, open product surgery to assist on product and payment service use and configuration
  
• Support for integration of your existing third-party software systems
  
• Dedicated success manager allocated:
  • Funding account establishment and funding optimisation
    
  • Monthly reconciliation support for relevant Finance operations teams, including support to match SCM/USM to funding account activity using the new enhanced funding report
    
  • Monthly account health reviews with Vitesse team to review service metrics against LIMOSS agreed SLAs, review level of usage and ensure correct utilisation of the service, adjusting account setup and product configuration to optimise service delivery
    

The managing agent should contact the DCA responsible for submitting the BDX, and ask them to correct or explain any differences.

We recommend this be done monthly as MAs and DCAs to get used to the new way of working. It is the responsibility of the managing agent to ensure appropriate control over finances and accounting.

Speak to relevant DCAs and brokers to determine the status of BDX submissions to resolve the delays.

The BDX must reconcile with the Cashbook to ensure no reconciliation issues are caused downstream, in technical accounting for the managing agent(s).

DCAs must ensure that the BDX and Cashbook claim payments match for each claim. For full best practice please refer to the training material.

This is a real-time statement showing money movements in a MAs funding account in Vitesse. It shows debits from the funding account to fund payments to beneficiaries, made by DCAs, as well as credits to top up the funding account after its balance drops below a configured threshold. The funding report will also show any reverse flows, i.e., where recoveries are re-credited onto the funding account.

There is no change to existing processes. The DCA will still create the bdx and submit it to the broker and/or MA, as per their existing process. The DCA will need to ensure the bdx reconciles to the Vitesse cash book, and they will continue to be responsible for getting the broker to sign off on the bdx.
The main change to the end-to-end process impacts the brokers. They will need to ensure that all FCP bdx are submitted as non-cash items in ECF. Their ability to do this will vary from broker to broker, but they should be able to annotate the ‘narrative’ section in ECF, to say ‘***non-cash***’

This is to ensure the ECF entry is processed as non-cash and no fund movements are triggered.

The broker would need to return the cash back to MAs. This would happen by putting a refund transaction onto ECF, as is the process today.

Some market systems used by brokers are unable to automatically submit BDX transactions to be processed as ‘non-cash’. LIIBA and the Future at Lloyd’s are engaging with market system vendors to plan for this additional functionality, to be added to their platform offering.

Vitesse PSP is an authorised e-Money institution (EMI) regulated by the FCA (Reference 900646) and subject to the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (EMRs) and Payment Services Regulations 2017 (PSRs). Authorised EMIs are subject to the full regulatory regime, including the capital, safeguarding, operational resilience, security and conduct of business requirements. For further information please contact success@vitessepsp.com

Vitesse has robust business continuity plans in place. For additional information please email success@vitessepsp.com