LIIBA Life Episode 1 Back from the hiatus

It is a bit like a Lloyd’s delegated authority system.  We just change the name every now and again so that you can’t remember which one is which.

A whole pint?

Heartening news this week that Health Secretary Matt Hancock has been given the Covid-19 vaccine, purely coincidentally,  by Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jean-Claude Van Tam in the Science Museum.  And, given JVT’s normal approach, I think we can all imagine how that went down.

“Come through Health Secretary and roll your sleeve up for me if you will.  I will be giving you the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine if that is ok.  It is the sort of willing work horse of our vaccine team.  Think of it as Robbie Savage if you will.

Now just loading up the syringe – a bit like when Ronaldo stands with his foot behind the ball when taking a free kick and then walks very slowly backwards.  Just checking you are sure you want to go ahead with it because now would be the time to back out, not after you have announced it.  Who said European Super League?

All set?  Great.  Here I come on the approach – little Jorginho jump and in!  Now for the high press on the syringe and you are showing great pace in transition.  All clear, so I will play the syringe out from the back and you are clean through on the exit door!  Second leg in twelve weeks’ time!”

“Oh, hang on a moment Health Secretary.  I am getting some news through from Stockley Park.  They are saying that, unfortunately, your arm appears to have been in an unnatural position away from your body during the vaccination.  They have suggested I go and review it on the screen over by the replica of George Stevenson’s Rocket…”

And so forth.

One minor gripe with this however.  I can understand a certain amount of caginess on the part of Downing Street spokespeople in the current climate.  Although I really can’t bring myself to get too fussed over who paid who how much for what in the Number 11 flat, when people start saying things like “there is nothing to see here” you can be pretty sure there really is.  But the Hancock/JVT thing is a totally different hervidor de pescados, surely?  So why this?

“A Downing Street spokesperson said it did not know the “full details” behind how Mr Hancock was allocated Prof Van-Tam to give him the jab.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman, asked whether Mr Hancock was given special treatment, told reporters: “I think a number of people have been lucky enough to be vaccinated by Professor Van-Tam.

“He does fairly regular shifts in and around the country, and so a number of people had it done (by him).

“I think he was doing a shift when the Health Secretary was vaccinated.”

Why not just say something like “the AstraZeneca jab is a very safe vaccine that has had some fairly unwarranted bad press in recent weeks.  It is going to play a huge role in how the world emerges from the pandemic.  So we thought it would be a good idea to have the Health Secretary receive the AstraZeneca from the man who has emerged as the nation’s favourite scientist in a temple to the huge contribution science has made to all our lives and continues to do so.  It might help rebuild public trust in this flavour of the jab”.  Or somesuch.  Because, you know, it would be, like, true.

A night at the Opres

FCA has published its policy statement on Operational Resilience.  Those of you with long memories may recall that a central feature of our response to the consultation on this was that this was an unnecessary piece of work as FCA already had more than enough powers – in Systems & Control Handbook and Senior Managers and Certification Regime – to achieve what it wanted without burdensome new rules.  A point FCA has completely ignored in its response.  Always good to feel valued.

Anyway, enough sulking, this is something that is going to happen.  And, although the rules only directly apply to those of you is the enhanced SMCR category, everyone will be affected.  Insurers are all within scope and they will need to be able to demonstrate that they have assured themselves of the resilience of third parties with whom they are connected.  You.

We are working with LMA and IUA to ensure that this process is well co-ordinated and that you do not get 87 different firms asking you the same questions is subtly different ways.  More news on this as it develops.  And we will look to bring you some webinars on this to help you understand the impact on your firm and its operations

Eee by ek

As opposed to #BuyEk which I for one am very much hoping for.

But this is the news of the drop off library in the village of Cornholme in Calderdale, West Yorkshire*.  Before we go on, I should declare an interest.  My mother is from West Yorkshire.  Bailiff Bridge to be precise – a world away from the types you would encounter in Cornholme.  So I grew up observing the uniquely Yorkshire relationship between my grandmother, Mrs Traves next door and Mrs Jones next door but one on Birkhouse Road.  Fiercely protective of each other if an outsider (like, say, my dad) even gave off a flicker of criticism of any of them or their county; fiercely competitive and critical of each other when the others weren’t around.  An experience built upon when myself and Mrs C were in the pub in Lastingham on the North York Moors chatting to a local.  He enquired what we were doing the next day.  On discovering that we planned to walk over to the next village, Rosedale Abbey (maybe 5 miles maximum as the crow flies) he responded “Rosedale Abbey??? What d’yer wanna do that fer? Ther a rum lot uvver ther”.

And so to Cornholme.  Someone, I suspect a Lancastrian from just over the border, has been replacing the books in the little library huts with pornographic literature.  The burghers of Cornholme have responded with a suitably passive aggressive note as follows.

“Whoever is placing the copys [sic] of pornographic literature in here, stop!  Cornholme is a God fearing Christian village.  If this filth is to your liking may we suggest that you move to the cess pit that is Hebden Bridge.”

Hebden Bridge being nearly 6 miles away, of course you would have developed deep seated prejudices against it.  Unless a southerner dared to suggest it was anything other than perfect.

*yes, I do know it is wrong to use the link from the Lancastrian Times.  But the Yorkshire Post article didn’t have the picture.  Probably cost too much…

Risen from the Hobberating table

It has been a few weeks, and, Lordy, has she been storing it up.  Deep breath.

  • Lloyd’s Website: We are still discovering areas and links that do not work and are also suggesting helpful (we’ll be the judge of that) updates – the latest request accepted is to show upcoming events with the latest appearing first, rather than having to endlessly scroll through to the end. Additionally, we have suggested details for Lloyd’s and Future at Lloyd’s events are shown (or linked to) from a single area rather than searching on different websites. If members have any other suggestions for improvements, or have noticed broken links, please let us know and we will liaise with Lloyd’s on the detail.

 

  • Lloyd’s Europe: In addition to our liaison with the team dealing with the operating model (and wishing to copy all the work you have done on reverse branching), we have been involved in conversations about how communications relating to regulatory updates can be improved upon. This follows a number of recent alerts and market communications that have caused concern amongst brokers and coverholders, where it’s felt these could have been communicated more effectively. We have recently created a separate “Lloyd’s Europe” section on our website library where members will be able to view and download documentation relating to LIC SA.

 

  • Claims: We will be holding our next Claims Forum event in mid-June.  Registration invites will be going out shortly for this.  It will cover work on the Future at Lloyd’s Faster Payments project, what will be delivered this year and how DDM (a very defensive midfielder?) fits in to the equation regarding the DA solution.

 

  • DA: We will also be holding another Facilities Forum event in June but if people haven’t already registered for next Thursday’s webinar on DCM, this can be done here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/LQGV2WP There is space on the registration form to pose any questions members would like to know – the LIIBA DCOM Sub-Group will be providing a warts and all update on the programme.

 

  • The MUA and Service Agreement for DCM was released to Market firms last week, with the DA team confirming 10% of firms have already signed and returned the MUA. We are receiving a number of broker queries directly regarding the MUA as the accompanying correspondence sent out from Lloyd’s noted a panel from LIIBA had contributed suggestions that have been incorporated. We would advise that the panel also contributed suggestions that were not incorporated in to the agreement. If member firms have any specific queries regarding the MUA or service agreement, the correct channel for raising these is via the DA programme using the following email address: DAchangesupport@lloyds.com

 

  • We have been advised that DXC have started to see an increase of claims being presented under SCAP following the relaunch earlier this year. This is positive news and a reflection on the work brokers have made to promote SCAP usage (if only it had a better name…).

 

  • We have been in discussions with Lloyd’s about improvements to Crystal (Carrington???). Notwithstanding some of the broken links already referred to above, we have been advised that if brokers have any issues regarding specific information contained within Crystal, these can be referred directly to Dean Wickens, who is the Senior Manager for International Regulatory Affairs Dean.Wickens@lloyds.com

 

A stream for help

We have recently released recordings of our webinars on the City of London Corporation’s plans for the future and the first LIIBA Snippet on IT outsourcing now available on our website.  Coming up in the next few weeks – in addition to the sessions Jackie has highlighted above, we have a refresher on client money rules on 12th June; snippets on the implications of the email FCA sent out a few weeks back regarding fraudulent claims processing and one on the Virtual Room; and the rearranged session on Digital Minds that we had to cancel earlier in the year due to presenter illness.  Details to come shortly on all of these.

Printagel

A Dutch couple have become the tenants of the world’s first entirely 3D printed house.  Which is, let us face it, pretty spooky.  But some features do spare us from having to face full scale dystopian horror.  The house is shaped like a boulder because the A3 tray jammed halfway through and tore the corners off.  Whilst the living room is decorated in a soft lavender, the kitchen and bedrooms are a rather stark white because the colour ink ran out halfway through.  And there is an exactly identical house next door because the printer took a while to get going so the couple hit the print button a second time just in case.

Is this what is known as a laser-faire approach?

I am off to spend the whole Bank Holiday Weekend listening to Spotify.  In the hope that that will drum up enough cash to buy Kylian Mbappe…