Over the past year Price Forbes, an independent specialist global wholesale insurance broker, has seen its Petronas Team move to trading the UK parts of this complex facility on the Whitespace Platform. When the team found themselves renewing the facility during lockdown in 2020, they wanted to find a way to do this as efficiently as possible, whilst being able to manage the complexities of the risks. Whitespace was there to help.

Prior to the initial Covid-19 lockdowns in March 2020, Price Forbes’ Petronas Team had a brief introduction to the Whitespace Platform. Therefore, due to the accessibility and user-friendly nature of the Platform, they were able to get up and running right away when it came to transitioning to remote working.

Through its digitised contracts, the Whitespace Platform enables all parties to quickly and efficiently review changes to a contract, allowing for transparency across the board. The Platform’s design and intuitive interface meant that the Petronas team found it simple to pick up and learn how to use the functionality to quote and agree complex risks with their markets. This enabled a smooth transition to remote working and helped the team to continue providing excellent service to their clients.

Why did the team move to use Whitespace?

Charles Hitchcock, Executive Director, said “We chose to initially place the Petronas Facility on Whitespace with just our leaders. In March 2020 we needed to be able to handle this complex facility in a way that kept track of the high volume of transactions easily: due to the clear audit trail the Platform provides, Whitespace enables us to do that whilst we were all working away from the office"

He added, “We found the Platform intuitive to use and quick to learn but the Whitespace team are always on hand to help when we have questions. The online training videos enable us to view all of the Platform’s functionalities as well and have proved a very useful tool if we need a quick reminder.”

Will the team keep using the platform?

Ian Pirie, Director, said, “Since placing this facility on Whitespace a year ago, we have been able to update it to be placed with every one of our markets with the exception of a few that have yet to sign up to Whitespace. However, for these there is a useful function that allows us to record their participations within Whitespace. All the members of our team are able to log in and interact with the facility at various points."

“When we gradually return to the office, the mobile apps mean we can keep using the platform in a flexible way to work with our underwriters wherever we, or they, are based.”

And how do the underwriters feel?

William Upton, property underwriter, Cincinnati Global said: “I’ve been using Whitespace since March this year. Despite it having been a while since I’d seen the demonstration, I found it easy to pick up as the user interface is very self-explanatory. The firm order process is a massive improvement from the old wet slips and changes can be made efficiently and effectively. It’s extremely useful to be able to clearly see the differences between quoted slips and firm order slips and it’s saving us masses of time that would otherwise be spent checking the whole contract again.”

Daniel Black, senior property underwriter, W/R/B Underwriting said: “We’re increasingly using Whitespace to communicate terms officially having previously relied on email exchanges for the negotiation process. Whitespace has assisted us in contract certainty and the Lloyd’s Emergency Trading Protocols. It’s been a great comfort during this period to have a clear audit trail.”