Interview: James Sutherland, Qatar Insurance Services


The use of web-based e-platforms allows for better clarity during negotiations, says James Sutherland, chief executive of Qatar Insurance Services.


I


n an uncertain environment, companies need to have confidence in the contracts


and agreements made through negotiations. This can be achieved by placing documents of this nature through an e-platform, which provides a structured but flexible workflow, allowing counterparties to negotiate and place and accept business in a secure and confidential environment. That is the persuasive view of James Sutherland, chief executive of Qatar Insurance Services. “Information and data for commercial in- surance transactions in most markets is still largely exchanged between counterparties us- ing email and attachments,” he says. “When multiple parties are involved in a transaction, the email trail can be hard to follow. Multiple versions of key documentation may be created, leaving an often messy and incomplete audit trail, with all parties involved, across companies and, often, numerous departments, needing to be copied in on every email exchange. Then all


25.10.11 TUESDAY


Transparency is key: Qatarlyst boss


James Sutherland, chief executive of Qatar Insurance Services


cess the information and status of their transac- tions from anywhere where there is an Internet connection. Managers, wherever they happen to be, can get an instant high level view of current and past transactions, create instant reports, drill down to single risk level and understand imme- diately the current status of any placement.” More than 110 firms, including brokers,


insurer and reinsurers, have already signed up to Qatarlyst in Doha, most of which are in the Gulf Co-operation Council member countries, although the company does have reinsurers in


“Information and data for commercial insurance transactions in most markets is still largely exchanged between counterparties using email and attachments.”


the core data and information on the transac- tion has to be entered in the back office systems of all the counterparties, which is a largely manual process.” The Qatarlyst e-platform solves all those


problems, while increasing contract certainty at the same time. This is because core risk data is delivered in a structured format, says Suther- land. “A single version of the ‘truth’ exists on the platform available to all authorised parties to the transaction,” Sutherland says. “Qatarlyst can also be integrated with back


office systems removing the need to rekey data. Because it is web-based, authorised users can ac-


www.intelligentinsurer.com


London and Europe on board as well. Qatarlyst is a subsidiary of the Qatar Finan-


cial Centre Authority (QFCA) and is backed by the Qatar government. The QFCA is tasked with creating a regional financial centre fo- cused on re/insurance, asset management and captives. “Qatarlyst is creating the e-infrastructure


that will connect Qatar to the rest of the region and well beyond,” says Sutherland. “The utility value of an e-platform increases with the size of the community of users, so our focus now is to build up membership as rapidly as possible so that every member can find all or most of


its usual counterparties on the system, reducing or eliminating the need for different processes with different counterparties. Membership has doubled so far in 2011.” Qatarlyst recently brought RI3K and is now


in the process of re-branding the company. It has taken this approach for a number of rea- sons, says Sutherland. “One was to give us a presence in the world’s oldest insurance market, Lloyd’s, and access to its extensive user base of nearly 300 insurance and reinsurance firms,” he says. “Financial centres need to be linked in a global business such as insurance and this acquisition has secured Qatar’s connection to London and other global markets. The second was to secure our own development capacity for greater control and responsiveness.” Looking to the future, Qatarlyst aims to


strengthen connections between London and Qatar. “Our immediate objective is to create a single platform and service so that we can link the customer bases of our London and Doha operations; we have been reinforcing and ex- panding the London and Doha teams to deliver this,” says Sutherland. “The new platform will be based on the lat-


est technology and allow for easier connection to other systems to improve scope for seamless end-to-end e-transactions. In the longer term we will introduce additional functionality to cover other parts of insurance transactions such as claims and accounting agreements.”


Tuesday October 25 2011 | INTELLIGENT INSURER —BADEN-BADEN TODAY | 19


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