Reinsurance moves from silos to shared data as collaboration gains ground

The placement process in reinsurance has been a patchwork of siloed workflows, duplicated data entry and opaque updates, but the industry is reaching a collaborative tipping point. 

Key points:
Shared platforms provide cleaner data and faster placements
Data quality becomes performance driver
Tech removes repetitive work, freeing up brokers

This is the view of Supercede’s co-founders Ben Rose, president, and Jerad Leigh, CEO, who spoke to Monte Carlo Today about entering a new era that will dismantle these inefficiencies.

Cedents, brokers and reinsurers are intentionally breaking down barriers to share cleaner data and speed up deal-making, and as the world’s reinsurance leaders gather in Monte Carlo, the conversation is turning from pricing power to data power. 

Historically, Rose always saw the broker-reinsurer relationship dominating the agenda and said:  “The cedent experience has really come under the limelight. Brokers are now working to give a better service to their cedents, while also responding to demands from reinsurers for earlier engagement and cleaner data.”

This shift is also technological. Where large brokers once built systems primarily for reinsurer engagement, there was “a big glaring gap” in how cedents and brokers worked together, a gap that Supercede can fill. 

Leigh noted that reinsurers have long been receptive to this approach. “From the earliest points in our journey, the reinsurers have been the ones crying out for support,” he said. 

Rose: "Previously, having very poor data quality was like airing your dirty laundry in public. Now clients recognise the link to better pricing.” 

Traditionally at the end of the information chain, reinsurers received submissions “in all manner of formats”, but what’s changing, Leigh added, is the willingness of cedents and brokers to adopt shared platforms. 

As more clients move onto Supercede, a network effect is taking hold: “Most of the large reinsurers are already building integrations into our platform. That makes them easier to work with for cedents and brokers, which in turn adds more value to the reinsurers.”

Breaking the silence

Data quality, once a taboo subject, is now openly discussed. “Previously, having very poor data quality was like airing your dirty laundry in public,” Rose admitted. “Now clients recognise the connection between better data and better pricing.”

Leigh: "AI can remove soulless, redundant, repetitive work so brokers and reinsurers can spend more time solving complex client problems.”

Reinsurers, frustrated by inefficient submissions, are even making the introductions. “We’re still the only company in the tech space that works specifically on reinsurance submission data quality.”

Leigh is pragmatic about artificial intelligence. “The idea that AI will transform placements misunderstands what the process actually is,” he stated, confident that partnerships and strategic negotiations would remain human-led. Instead, Leigh said:  “AI can remove soulless, redundant, repetitive work, such as re-keying and structuring data, so brokers and reinsurers can spend more time solving complex client problems.”

Rose sees the volatile world as “a call to arms” for the sector but warned that reinsurance was currently a bottleneck for innovation: “Getting a reinsurance deal done is still very manual and very slow. This means reinsurance that could be bought isn’t.”

By streamlining processes, technology could make the sector “much, much bigger”,  enabling insurers to respond quickly to emerging risks and support under-served markets.

Beyond 1/1

Supercede’s growth plan focuses on expanding its role across the full reinsurance lifecycle, from placement to technical accounting and portfolio management. For Leigh, Monte Carlo itself is the perfect metaphor, with “everyone coalescing into a singular place, working collaboratively with their closest trading partners”.

However Rose would like the market to think beyond the 1 January renewal rush. “First of January is when contracts begin, and when the real work starts,” he said. 

Back-office teams depend on accurate placement data for regulatory reporting, modelling and capital management, yet for too often, they wait months for incomplete documentation. Rose’s vision is a more integrated, Formula 1-style approach. “Not racing in silos, but with a very high-tech approach where you're on the radio to your team in the pit, and lots of very closely coordinated collaboration is happening between both the front of house and the back of house at any time.”

For Leigh, the central theme is also an intentional shift towards collaboration. “In any one transaction there are 70 counterparties, each re-keying the same data into their own systems repeatedly. Now we’re seeing the industry lean towards asking where the information lives and can it be shared.”

“This intentional exchange between parties is growing, and it’s a trend we want to accelerate.

Ben Rose is president of Supercede. He can be contacted at: ben@supercede.com

Jerad Leigh is chief executive officer of Supercede. He can be contacted at: jerad@supercede.com.

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