Italy: New electronic platform to issue Italian open market contracts

The current paper based process, described below, will be replaced by the enhancement of Doprint.  Doprint is a web-based system that is already used by Lloyd’s coverholders in Italy and the UK to issue insurance certificates under binding authorities.

Current process for issuing open market policy documents

Where the Market Reform Contract (MRC) requires an open market policy to be evidenced by a contract document signed by Lloyd’s General Representative for Italy, the OMC prepares a contract document. The contract document is submitted in three copies to LIO, along with a copy of the MRC. LIO checks the contract document to ensure that it complies with the Italian legal requirements and agrees with the MRC. If the contract document is in order, the Lloyd’s General Representative signs the three copies and returns them to the OMC. In accordance with Italian market practice, the OMC then asks the insured to sign each of the three documents. The OMC then returns the insurer’s copy to LIO. A signed contract document constitutes legal evidence of the insurance contract agreed and entered into by Lloyd's underwriters.

Renewals and endorsements follow the same procedure.

Detailed procedures of the above process can be found in Crystal under section “Insurance documents – Production of policy documents for open market business placed via an intermediary in Italy”.

The Lloyd’s General Representative for Italy signs about 4,000 open market contracts documents and 6,000 endorsements per year.

What is the proposed service?

Doprint will be extended to Lloyd’s OMCs for the issuing of open market policy contracts. Doprint will capture the policyholder details, risk and premium data, and will manage all documents that need to be included in the contract document as well as the MRC.

Once checked by LIO and signed by the Lloyd’s General Represenative for Italy, the insurance contract will be available for download as a PDF by the OMC who, in turn, can forward it to the policyholder.

The proposed implementation of the service will be in H1 2017.

What are the benefits of the new process?

As well as the data capture described above, other benefits include:

• Up to date Lloyd’s mandatory clauses will be included automatically in every contract
• Courier and printing costs will be reduced
• Faster process
• Contract certainty enhanced
• Auditable logs for each contract

Which areas are not in scope?

The project will have no impact on:

• Insurance policies where the contract document is issued outside Italy
• Marine cargo certificates
• Any reinsurance business

Keeping the market up to date

As the project progresses, Lloyd’s will issue additional communications to the market to provide further detail and will engage directly with the OMCs involved. If you would like to receive regular updates, please see the contact details below.

LIO will communicate the details of the project to other local stakeholders. As the project develops, LIO will also ask Doprint users for assistance in testing the enhancements to the system.

When the service is ready for launch, revised process details will be issued and the Doprint user guide will be updated to reflect the changes. Open sessions will be held to support the system users. In addition, OMCs will be required to agree to revised terms and conditions in respect of their use of the Doprint system.

Further information

For further information please contact:

Or

Lloyd's International Trading Advice

Primary point of contact for advice and information
on Lloyd's trading status worldwide.