AON’s Case defends GRIP and transparency

GRIP is a real-time electronic platform that tracks all of Aon’s placements globally, from submission to quotes and binding that was launched last year. The database holds information from hundreds of thousands of trades annually, worth tens of billions of dollars of premium. Mr Case described it as a ‘unique’ resource.

Following Mr Case’s presentation to the DVS members, however, one delegate asked whether he was certain that customers are happy for their data to be shared and pay for the privilege.

Mr Case said that the system had been developed over a two and a half year period and was ‘vey much driven’ by client needs.

He said that no insurance company worldwide has the depth and breadth of risk information and analysis that Aon holds and that can be presented in ‘an integrated’ manner to deliver unique benchmarking information.

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“We have invested a lot of money into this and it is highly secure. The response has been overwhelmingly positive and any client that has looked at it has been awed by it. We have 7,000 brokers worldwide entering data into it and a dedicated analytical centre. Clients have been overwhelmingly positive but if they do not want to be in it then we do not include them,” he said.

Mr Case was also asked about transparency and contingent commissions. The previous day Stefan Sigulla, President of the DVS, had called for a new pact of transparency to be built between customers, brokers and insurers to help improve the risk transfer system and help tackle emerging risks.

Also recent court decisions in the US has re-opened the debate about contingent commissions about whether brokers should accept them and if so in what form.

Mr Case said of transparency that Aon ‘loves the stuff.’ “I believe we have led the way on transparency. The most important thing is that the client needs to know what is the real cost and the value of the service. This needs to be crystal clear to them. We are not low price and so we want the clients to know the real value of what we deliver. We want it to be fully transparent. The challenge is that most of the [broking] industry is not,” he explained.

When pushed on whether Aon discloses how much it is paid by individual insurance companies to help customers work out whether or not their business is steered to any company because they pay more than others, Mr Case said that this already occurs.

“We talk to clients on a client by client basis. Please tell the rest of the industry to do the same,” he said.

Mr Case also said that he would be more than happy to discuss the matter with the DVS but again said that any subsequent action would have to be made on an industry-wide basis.