Market Reform Contract Guidance

Market Reform Contract (Open Market) Guidance - new version 1.9

In accordance with previous practice, a cross-market group has carried out the annual review of the Market Reform Contract (Open Market) Guidance. This has resulted in the publication of a new version (v 1.9) of the guidance containing a limited number of changes. In summary, the following amendments have been made:

Added new section under 4.3 entitled 'Considerations When Using Electronic Placing'.
Expanded General Guidance under section 4.4 with regards to checking the scope of the contract without sufficient information (page 12).
Removed references to LMA9150 in the MRC examples (pages 13 and 28).
Expansion of A2.8 in respect of sanctions compliance
Added clarity to the reason for any exemptions for EEA/EU business under section A2.13 and A2.14.
Updated section A2.15 in respect of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Added a new mandatory 'Regulatory Risk Location' heading E2.3 under Fiscal and Regulatory section (page 76).

The revised guidance can be used immediately, but will become the required standard for new and renewal business incepting from 01 January 2019.

Market Reform Contract (Open Market) Guidance – Lloyd's Brussels Supplementary Addendum
Lloyd’s has established a new insurance company based in Brussels (Lloyd’s Insurance Company S.A., known as Lloyd’s Brussels), to underwrite non-life insurance and facultative reinsurance risks located in EEA countries with effect from 01 January 2019. From that date, placements under a syndicate and LBS stamp will have to be priced separately and the MRC will need to be split, or have separate sections, for non-EEA/EEA risks accordingly.

Lloyd’s, in conjunction with the Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA), has therefore produced a Lloyd’s Brussels Supplementary Addendum (v1.0) to the MRC Guidance, to assist the market with the creation of such split/sectionalised Open Market MRCs in respect of risks located in the EEA (underwritten by Lloyd’s Brussels) and non-EEA countries, with effect from 01 January 2019.

The Lloyd’s Brussels Supplementary Addendum does not seek to repeat the content of the ‘Market Reform Contract Open Market Implementation Guide’ (v1.9) which is already in existence to define the MRC standard, including the layout and content of a standard form, but should be read alongside it. The numbering used, e.g. for paragraph headings, in this document therefore replicates the numbering system within the ‘Market Reform Contract Open Market Implementation Guide’ (v1.9).

Separate Supplementary Guidance Addenda are being produced to sit alongside the separate MRC Binding Authority Guidance and MRC Line slips Guidance, respectively, and these will be published shortly.

Download now:

All MRC publications (including marked-up versions highlighting significant changes from the previous versions) are available to access on the LMG website under Documentation & Infrastructure.

If you have any queries arising from these documents, please do not hesitate to contact Alison Colver (alison.colver@lmalloyds.com, 020 7327 8370).

Alison Colver
Head of Wordings