Aspen Re is believed to be the first underwriter in Bermuda to implement an electronic accounting and settlement system.

It will now trade all of its accounting and settlement transactions (A&S) electronically with brokers Aon and Benfield, which is approximately 300 submissions a month.

A&S messaging is fast becoming the industry-wide standard due to its efficiency and regulatory benefits.

Lisa Gibbard, head of IT at Aspen Re, said: "With the implementation of A&S technology, our finance team have a single 'portal' to monitor for incoming broker messages and documents. This replaces the often problematic process of tracking and chasing paper and e-mail notifications and pushes forward with the 'market reform' initiative which has seen recent success in the London market."

Traditionally, A&S transactions were manually processed, which was time consuming and prone to error. The standardised A&S messaging system will provide the companies with increased efficiency in processing, improved compliance in the areas of audit and control, and improved data integrity.

Ian Summers, director of change strategy at Aon said: "The use of messaging to support the reinsurance process introduces transparencies and efficiencies not achievable through the traditional distribution channels, industry statistics refer to a 35-percent rework associated with the traditional processes — so the benefits are obvious."

Apsen Re has used Web Connectivity's ACORD messaging gateway "EnabledB2B" which meets internationally recognised standards.

The project forms an important contribution towards the goal of 'end-to-end' electronic trading between reinsurers and their broker partners throughout the full risk life cycle.

Paul Smith, Global Head of Customer Technical Services at Benfield, said the company have been using A&S messaging with their overseas customers.

He said: "The application of this technology to the Bermudian market extends the benefits of A&S even further and we look forward to achieving more implementations of this technology with other reinsurers in the Bermuda market."