Summary
Progress against our Blueprint Two goals
As we reach the final quarter of the year, we’re reflecting on the changes and progress made over the last three months.
On 20 August, the shareholders and Board of Velonetic announced changes to the Velonetic leadership with immediate effect. Bob James was appointed Chief Executive Officer (previously COO of Lloyd’s) and Callum Gibson as Chief Operating Officer (DXC Technology Build Lead and a member of the Velonetic Board; which are positions he retains). You can read more on these changes here.
An immediate priority of the new leadership is to complete the re-plan activities for the remaining technology build, testing and market assurance. This was communicated to the market on 20 August and further information provided in the virtual re-plan update on 12 September. More details on this session are included below.
Here is a summary of what is included in our Q3 update:
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On 8 and 11 July, Lloyd’s and Velonetic co-hosted three Q&A sessions following our 24 June Blueprint Two Working Session. The slides and recordings can be found here.
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On 12 September, we held a virtual walkthrough and Q&A session with the market on the phase one re-plan. The slides and recording can be viewed here.
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As part of the re-plan, we revised the testing framework to de-risk the testing programme; more details on this are included below. We’re currently addressing key testing issues, including platform performance, EDI messages and claims.
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The results of the second cutover paper-based rehearsal are available on the cutover page of the Blueprint Two website.
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The onboarding guide was updated on 5 August and can be downloaded from the onboarding page of the Blueprint Two website.
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Significant work has been carried out with the PRA, FCA and the LMA to agree the form of the material outsourcing notification (MON) document for managing agents. Three key steps will be completed as part of this process: submission of the regulatory notification (MON), signing of the DPSA and signing of the Termination Letter.
Progress update
Market engagement and adoption
July follow-up Q&A session
Lloyd’s and Velonetic co-hosted three follow-up Q&A sessions on 8 and 11 July, following the 24 June Blueprint Two Working Session. Over 350 people attended and were able to ask our experts questions and receive updates on testing and Vanguard, training, onboarding and cutover. You can review the recordings from the sessions here.
Walkthrough of the re-plan
On 12 September, Velonetic provided an update to 600 market participants on the development of the end-to-end re-plan to deliver phase one digital services. The changes to the leadership of Velonetic were also discussed and there was time at the end of the session for attendees to ask any questions to our experts. The slides and recordings can be found here on the Blueprint Two website.
Testing and Vanguard
As part of the re-plan, we revised the testing framework to de-risk the testing programme, though milestones are still dependent on receiving quality code from the technology build. We’re currently addressing key testing issues, including platform performance, EDI messages and claims.
As a result of the re-plan, we’ve made three key changes:
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Reduced the complexity across Vanguard testing and increased the number of cycles
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Introduced a dedicated vendor test stream
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Created separation between Vanguard and customer coordinated testing (CCT).
In terms of reducing complexity, for the earlier testing cycles we’ll be working with 8 Vanguard participants (4 broker and 4 carrier pairings), bringing the remainder of the Vanguard group into latter cycles when most of the functionality will be available. This will mean we can increase the level of flexibility and focus on testing the build and fixing defects.
Cutover
As previously advised, we will only cutover to phase one digital services once it is safe to do so, with a robust cutover, rollback and contingency plan in place. We will decide a new cutover date once we are satisfied a number of key activities have been completed or are near completion.
On 20 June, the second paper-based rehearsal was held, running through the key actions and responsibilities for the cutover period. The notes were released to the market and are available on the cutover page of the Blueprint Two website.
Due to the re-plan of the Blueprint Two programme, we postponed the first in-person dress rehearsal, the release of the cutover communications plan, and the walkthroughs of the cutover plan for the market. These activities will be rescheduled and announced in due course.
Alongside the re-plan, the cutover team are actively working to clarify outstanding areas of open transactions, aimed at ensuring customers are well-informed about the necessary steps before and during cutover. Additionally, the team is examining the controlled launch phase and detailing what this looks like.
Onboarding
On 5 August, Velonetic released an updated version of the onboarding guide which included updates to the user access roles as well as other minor updates that reflected your feedback. The Bank Mandate form was also published separately to the guide; both can be downloaded from the onboarding page of the Blueprint Two website. If you have any questions, please get in contact via [email protected].
Risk and regulatory assurance
Lloyd’s are making progress in setting out a clear view of the framework and sequencing for market assurance, governance and regulatory notification activities for managing agents.
As committed at our market event hosted on 24 June, Lloyd’s will submit one, consolidated material outsourcing notification (‘MON’) for managing agents. Significant work has already been carried out with the PRA and FCA, together with the LMA, to agree the form of this document. Regulators will be notified when the MON has been published and will continue to be notified on an iterative basis as artefacts become available through the rest of 2024, leading into 2025.
The submission of the regulatory notification represents the point at which firms have a high degree of confidence in cutover and therefore their intent to sign the Termination Letter.
As confidence builds through the course of the year, three key steps will be completed:
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Submission of the regulatory notification (the MON)
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Signing of the Digital Processing Services Agreement (DPSA)
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Signing of the Termination Letter
As part of the re-plan exercise, the team are working towards finalising how the consolidated MON may support the regulatory work for dual-platform firms. Given there will be considerable overlap in the practical detail and evidence being considered across Lloyd’s and non-Lloyd’s entities, Lloyd’s will continue to explore how we can best achieve a smooth regulatory and external quality assurance process for the whole programme.
The IUA are reviewing the Lloyd’s MON template and will be working with Lloyd’s to establish whether this could be usefully shared with company market carriers either for submission to UK Regulators or other regulators outside the UK. Further updates will follow in due course.
Useful links
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