LONDON, UK and PEARL RIVER, NY – 9 January 2008 – ACORD (www.acord.com) and the London Market Insurance Brokers’ Committee (www.lmbc.co.uk) have formed the ACORD Brokers Committee to increase communication and interaction between ACORD and medium to small brokers in the London Market.
For many years, ACORD has worked with independent agents in the US through AUGIE (ACORD User-Group Information Exchange) which provides a single voice for US independent agents within the industry and the ACORD standards development process. ACORD and LMBC are now bringing that successful formula to the brokers in London to support standards implementations.
The goals, as laid out by ACORD and LMBC, are:
- To support and drive implementation of ACORD Standards among medium and small brokers in the London Market.
- To coordinate the collective voice of the brokers in London and make their needs better known.
- To provide a forum to discuss technical issues of importance to brokers.
The committee will consist of 10 members elected from the overall group. LMBC will chair the committee while ACORD will manage and facilitate the process. It is expected that the group will meet four times each year with one of those meetings being open to the public. The remainder will be by invitation only.
“We believe this is a great step forward and will help not only the small and medium sized brokers, but the industry as a whole. As industry participants learn about and understand to their organizations, they can achieve greater efficiency and accuracy while improving their overall business,” said Roy Laker, assistant vice president, London Office, ACORD. “ACORD has always worked to include all parts of the industry in the standards development and implementation processes and this committee will help give voice to the London brokers.”
David Hough, executive director, LMBC added that “this new committee will be very beneficial to the broking community, giving it a clear unified voice as the market continues to implement both new processes and technology. ACORD standards are already well integrated into the industry today and will remain important as we advance with electronic processing and in the elimination of the rekeying and paper required today. This committee will bring together a number of organisations to take on whatever new challenges we face with the implementation of international standards.”
