Neal rumoured to replace Beale as Lloyd’s CEO
John Neal, the former boss of Australia-based insurer QBE Insurance Group who lost his job last year following a shock profit warning, is likely to be appointed as the new chief executive of Lloyd’s of London, according to a Sept. 7 Financial Times report citing “people familiar with the matter”.
The appointment is due to go through the final stages of the approval process in the coming days, according to the same people.
Lloyd's could not be reached for comment.
Neal stepped down after five years as QBE CEO in September 2017.
In June 2017 QBE i ssued a profit warning on emerging markets claims. It said that “significantly higher than expected claims activity during the first five months of the year in emerging markets” would hit its interim and full year results.
QBE reported a net loss of $1.25 billion for 2017 driven by record catastrophes in the second half of 2017 together with deterioration in its emerging markets businesses and two significant non-cash items.
Neal is expected to replace Lloyd’s CEO Inga Beale who is stepping down next year after leading the global insurance and reinsurance market for five years.
Beale joined Lloyd’s in January 2014. Since then, her commitment to transformation across the market, and within the corporation, has led to significant cultural change and the adoption of new technology that has accelerated the market’s modernisation and digitalisation, Lloyd’s had said in an official statement.
Beale was the first female CEO in the market’s history and is stepping down while the modernisation process at Lloyd’s is very much a work in progress.
The Lloyd’s insurance market has introduced electronic placement to support face-to-face negotiation, aiming to increase efficiency in the market, reduce back office costs, and improve customer service.
The electronic placing platform provided by PPL was launched in July 2016, initially for standalone terrorism business and is being extended to all classes of business including reinsurance and aviation.
The system transports data through quoting to binding, and beyond. PPL provides benefits to both brokers and underwriters as it limits rekeying and therefore reducing costs.
The modernisation work under the banner of the London Market Target Operating Model (TOM) aims to create a market that is highly accessible, efficiently run and relevant to the needs of customers.
The market is also experimenting with new technologies. In October 2017 Lloyd’s of London has signed its first Artificial Intelligence (AI) deal to automate business processes in the market.
A month later Lloyd’s started testing the business impact of implementing a new smart data analytics platform for managing an insured vessel fleet in cooperation with data provider Windward.
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