Collaboration between Acord and Howden on Developing Digital Accounting Standards
Digital Accounting Standards Introduced in UK Retail Insurance Market
ACORD, a leading organization in standardizing data exchange in the global insurance industry, has partnered with Howden to deploy its digital accounting and invoicing standards in the UK retail insurance market [2]. This marks the first operational use of ACORD’s digital accounting standards in the UK outside the London market.
The partnership signifies a key step toward modernizing and streamlining accounting and invoicing processes in UK retail insurance. Traditional, often email-based, exchanges will be replaced with real-time digital data standards [3].
ACORD, established in 1970, develops electronic standards and workflows to enhance efficiency, reduce errors, and improve data quality in insurance transactions [3]. The adoption of its digital accounting and invoicing standards with Howden aligns with broader industry trends toward digital data exchange covering placing, accounting, and claims.
The impact on the broader UK insurance sector includes increased efficiency and accuracy in accounting and invoicing workflows across retail insurance brokers and insurers. Other benefits include the acceleration of industry-wide digital transformation, foundation for integration with advanced technologies, and potential for enhanced regulatory compliance [1][5].
ACORD's digital accounting and invoicing standards are facilitated by ACORD iConductor, a cloud-native platform that connects stakeholders via modern API architecture and supports both XML and JSON messaging formats [4]. The launch of ACORD iConductor is part of ACORD's ongoing efforts to digitize the insurance industry's data sharing process [6].
Sapiens International Corporation has signed an ongoing partnership agreement with ACORD as a leading global messaging platform partner [6]. This collaboration is expected to further enhance the digitization of the insurance industry's data sharing process.
The updated ACORD Global Reinsurance & Large Commercial (GRLC) Standards aim for straight-through, end-to-end processing across the insurance industry [1]. Howden has built an extensive roadmap of retail insurers they want to partner with in the future to digitally exchange invoicing data [7]. In addition, Hiscox can respond to the digital invoices Howden sends in real time through the ADEPT receiver portal [1].
This development marks a significant advancement in the collaboration between ACORD and Howden, two organizations with a long-standing and valued partnership [1]. Moreover, this is the first time ACORD digital accounting standards are being used in the UK outside of the specialty and (re)insurance market [2].
In conclusion, the ACORD-Howden partnership represents a notable advancement in digital standard adoption in UK retail insurance. This could potentially set a precedent that could broaden to other segments of the market and help the sector meet modern operational, risk, and regulatory challenges [2][3].
[1] ACORD Global Business Leader, acord.org [2] ACORD Press Release, acord.org [3] ACORD About Us, acord.org [4] ACORD ADEPT, acord.org [5] FCA Regulatory Guidance, fca.org.uk [6] Sapiens Press Release, sapiens.com [7] Howden Press Release, howdengroup.com
- The digitization of accounting and invoicing processes in the UK retail insurance sector may lead to a significant increase in operational efficiency and accuracy, as ACORD's digital accounting standards align with industry trends towards digital data exchange.
- In the finance sector, technology plays a crucial role in revolutionizing traditional methods, such as email-based exchanges, as seen in the deployment of ACORD's digital accounting and invoicing standards, which is facilitated by the ACORD iConductor platform.
- Regulation compliance may be further enhanced in the insurance industry with the widespread adoption of digital standards, as the contemporary digital infrastructure could potentially support more secure, accurate, and transparent data handling, following the example set by the digital account standards introduced in the UK retail insurance market.
