After years of delays, Lloyd’s of London’s ambitious strategy to digitalise the marketplace has been shelved, as new management under Patrick Tiernan seeks to rethink the approach.
Blueprint Two, launched seven years ago, was a programme pitched as delivering a “profound” change in the London specialist and reinsurance market through digitalisation.
Lloyd’s, together with the market associations and Velonetic, was aiming to build a system to help digitalise the market.
However, the original goal of full digital adoption in Q2 2024 has been repeatedly pushed back, most recently to a completion date before 2028.
Now sources familiar with the situation have told City AM the project has been quietly shelved, with the team responsible for market engagement disbanded at the end of last year.
“I had a call with the head of change in October, where I was told the project was paused, there’s nothing else going on with it, and the team was leaving Lloyd’s,” a source from a Lloyd’s regulated broker told City AM.
Cutting costs and investment
The source, who had previously been working on Blueprint Two for their firm, confirmed they are no longer working on it due to “no progress happening on it”.
Another source, a senior at an insurance firm, confirmed that the team responsible for engaging with the market on Blueprint Two was disbanded at the end of last year.
The source explained to City AM that Lloyd’s was cutting its own costs and investment, and pushing more responsibility onto the Velonetic project team. They added that Lloyds is not binning the Blueprint Two strategy, but is shifting the focus to the Velonetic platform and reducing market engagement.
It is understood that new leadership at Lloyds is exploring different strategies to draw a line under Blueprint Two and “the toxicity associated with it”.
Patrick Tiernan took over as CEO on 1 June 1 2025, succeeding John Neal, who stepped down after seven years. Neal has since found himself in the headlines after AIG dropped his appointment after an ‘alleged workplace relationship’ came to light.
The senior source said the underlying system change is still necessary, but Lloyds needs a new plan.
City AM understands that Lloyd’s has had “quite a lot of consultants in” to talk to the new management team about its AI strategy.
When approached for a comment, a spokesperson for Lloyd’s of London said, “Lloyd’s remains absolutely committed to supporting the re-platforming of the market to a resilient, cloud-based operational infrastructure”.
The spokesperson added that Lloyd’s continues to work closely with Velonetic and its other two shareholders to “ensure the heritage systems remain operationally resilient until at least 2030, so the market can be assured of long-term stability; and establish a roadmap that transitions the market to digital services through incremental, carefully sequenced steps.”
