Why the latest data suggests substantial improvements are on the horizon for the London Market

By now we have all heard about the benefits of digital trading supporting improved customer servicing, operational efficiency, and innovation in London.

For those more deeply involved, something more profound has been happening.

The acceleration in adoption of digital trading by brokers has encouraged a greater pace of technological innovation more widely. Platforms and products of all kinds are leveraging the network effects of being part of a connected digital ecosystem. This should be good news for everyone in the London Market.

The LIIBA Report “Innovation Imperative: Why Brokers Matter More Than Ever” * released in October suggests a few reasons why brokers can be viewed as the centre of the insurance innovation engine.

One of the single biggest near-term accelerators has been broker behaviour – London Market brokers are moving from pilot projects to implementing enterprise-scale, data-first placement and trading strategies. This change is unlocking demand, investment, and use-cases across the insurance value chain.

“Building the data and proving the case: …by leveraging their role as the client’s risk partner, brokers help create the track record that enable underwriters, often through years of groundwork: collecting exposure metrics, standardising definitions, and developing scenarios. Brokers see across many clients, so they can identify patterns and aggregate data many companies cannot on their own.”

“Innovation Imperative: Why Brokers Matter More Than Ever” (Page 28)

A few years have passed since the latest initiatives to “align-and-refine” standards within Market placement, namely the MRCv3 and the Core Data Record (CDR). The premise is that a practice of standardising contracting terms and the collection of data points would serve as the foundation for further insurance innovation: growth, plus the means to scale operations more efficiently. Further alignment would naturally be a consequence, as alignment means improved cost management, avoiding the need for as many overheads in building and maintaining the movement of information between systems.

While the published standards spurred many in the London Market on, they were only one of the catalysts of an already changing shift in approach with data usage.

Brokers and carriers articulating digital strategies is now commonplace. These strategies set out to understand the costs currently incurred by operating across disparate, unconnected systems. Quantifying meant making pain points obvious and measurable and helped when defining targets for improvements. This offered a view of how data flows between teams, in much the same way that finance departments have long governed revenue, earnings and cashflows within businesses – granting the focus to enact targeted change programmes.

These programmes are now well into delivering, visibly and measurably, to sponsors.

Many of our clients have made the Whitespace APIs the cornerstone of their workflows. Our data shows this progress in action.

Growth in bound contracts was 24.2% in October 2025 compared to the same month the previous year. Together with the growth in client integrators to the Platform, which have more than doubled over the last year to 41, this is proof that participants see the value in these connections to their own administration, analytics, and reporting systems.

How can we place a value on these connections?

Let’s look at another important metric: how much relevant data is captured and identifiable on contracts. Growth in the average number of data points on a contract (like insured addresses, sums insured or premium that link to a data standard) has been this most significant indicator of value. While the average contract in October 2024 had 23 data points, this number from October 2025 is now 28.6; a 24.4% increase in the amount of structured and aligned data delivered out of the Platform.

A further indicator of progress has been a demand from brokers for an ability to supply more early-stage placement data – in recognition that this is a key enabler for auto-decision-making use cases from capacity providers, meaning brokers get quicker and more reliable responses. The focus on completeness and accuracy is also driving innovations like auto-follow lines for facilities and other new “placement innovations” in the London Market.

These all offer a clear indication that brokers are very much setting the pace in transforming pushing the marketplace to digital placements.

“The emergence of shared platforms, where data is already accessible in a consistent format to all participants, is streamlining operations and reducing duplication of effort. In parallel, rapid advances in artificial intelligence, underpinned by significant industry investment, are poised to deliver even greater capability and insight. At Verisk, we remain fully committed to supporting all initiatives that enable the market to share and utilise data more effectively, with greater speed, accuracy, and cost efficiency.”

Marcus Broome, Whitespace Chief Platform Officer

With the building blocks of (1) clearer strategies, (2) a stronger culture of data ownership, (3) motivated teams driving change programmes, and (4) technologies that enable easier ways of doing business, we can all look forward to a smarter digital ecosystem improving the attractiveness of our market for customers globally.

We at Whitespace will continue on our mission to improve access to structured data and working with other forward-thinkers on alignment and innovation.

* Verisk and Whitespace were sponsors of this report.