Kinnect, Lloyd’s major move into online processing, has taken a turn for the worse with the sudden departure of its two most senior managers. Lloyd’s has reluctantly admitted that the Kinnect platform – which has already cost £70 million ($162 million) to develop – needs extensive re-engineering.

Kinnect enables commercial lines trading partners to send and receive risk data electronically for quicker and higher quality business completion, greater productivity and profit. It began operation in December 2000. The platform already carries about 60% of Lloyd’s capacity, and is used by many managing agents and brokers, including Marsh, Willis and JLT.

Originally known as the Blue Mountains Project, Kinnect was described just 18 months ago by CEO Nick Prettejohn as “an excellent platform for the future of Lloyd’s” and a “vital piece of market infrastructure”.

The departure of the Kinnect CEO, Toby Davies, and its chairman, Iain Saville – who both stepped down on September 14 – was virtually ignored by Lloyd’s. But there is certainly plenty of concern in the market that extensive recoding will be necessary, and that no cost has yet been put on the project.