Pressure is mounting on Lloyd's of London syndicates to place more of their business electronically, despite targets having been exceeded in the second quarter.

Placing Platform Ltd., or PPL, is used across the London insurance market, including Lloyd's and the non-Lloyd's company market, but Lloyd's has mandated use of PPL for its syndicates. It had a target of 10% of business that is in the scope of the mandate to be transacted on the platform in the second quarter, rising to 30% by the end of 2018.

Both Lloyd's and company market underwriters exceeded the 10% target for the second quarter, according to PPL figures published Aug. 13, with Lloyd's placing underwriters collectively placing 16.3% of their in-scope business and company market underwriters 23%. The figures, published by the London Market Group, also show that 63% of Lloyd's syndicates met or exceeded the 10% target, as did 70% of company market firms.

Some 24% of Lloyd's syndicates missed the target, and a further 13% had no in-scope risks during the period. On the company market side, 30% of firms missed the target.

Although the targets were hit, PPL Chairman Bronek Masojada, who is also CEO of Lloyd's insurer Hiscox Ltd., said that starting from the next reporting quarter, PPL will produce league tables of all participants. Masojada said in a statement accompanying the statistics: "By highlighting success amongst those businesses that have well-exceeded the targets, we hope to encourage a race to the top."

Masojada also said focusing solely on the placement of risks, when the underwriter accepts risk from a broker, is "not enough."

"We want to get it right, right from the start of the value chain — at submission, and there is still a long way to go on those metrics," he said. He added that if accurate data is not captured at the start of the placement process and structured data at the end, "we will only be doing part of the job we need to do."

Brokers are also reporting growing use of PPL. In a separate statement, Chris Croft, CEO of the London & International Insurance Brokers' Association, said more than 40 brokers were now using the platform and that the number "continues to grow each month, with nearly half of them now using the quote function right at the start of the process."