US-based insurance software and services specialist Ebix has signed a contract to build a placement platform linking brokers and insurers across the entire London market.

The contract was finalised last week, a year after Ebix was named as the successful tenderer for the platform to quote, negotiate and bind business electronically.

The deal involved the International Underwriting Association, the London & International Insurance Brokers' Association and the Lloyd's Market Association.

It completes a major step in the London Market Group’s 2013 review, which found the market needed to improve its accessibility through a central placement platform supporting traditional face-to-face negotiations and purely electronic placements or a combination of both.

Ebix President and CEO Robin Raina says this is “the first time that a single exchange platform is being deployed to facilitate electronic placement of insurance across a market comprised of all the constituents”.

“That it is being done by the largest insurance marketplace in the world makes this a particularly significant event in the global insurance market.

“With this exchange, London will be the first and only commercial insurance market globally to implement electronic placing.”

The platform will provide real-time status updates to clients on the progress of quotes at any hour, with standard structured contracts replacing scanned versions with manual stamps. The process of obtaining signed line confirmations to carriers is expected to be shortened by up to 30 days.

Ebix also owns and operates the Australian insurance industry’s largest electronic exchange platform, Sunrise Exchange.