Untangling DA Risks Before They Tangle Your Christmas Lights

Delegated underwriting continues to be one of the most important distribution channels for the Lloyd’s market, accounting for around 45% of its premium income (Lloyds 2025). It’s no wonder Delegated Authority (DA) agreements are often described as the engine room of specialty insurance - reliable, efficient, and built on trust. In the spirit of the season, you might even call coverholders the industry’s Santa’s helpers: busy, industrious, and tasked with delivering what carriers need at scale.

But even at this most magical time of year, when goodwill abounds and the markets start winding down for the holidays, significant risks can quietly creep in unnoticed - much like that one broken bulb that stops the whole string of fairy lights from shining.

One of the biggest and most persistent challenges in delegated underwriting is the delay in bordereaux reporting. Bordereaux, those detailed spreadsheets or files that list policies written, premiums collected, and claims made, tend to arrive like late Christmas post: created at the end of the month or quarter and then sent days or even weeks later. For many insurers, that means a risk written on December 1st might not be visible until mid-January. On average, this delay spans 5–6 weeks.

In insurance terms, that’s a long time to be in the dark. Imagine sitting around the Christmas tree waiting for the lights to flicker on, only to find the plug hasn’t even been connected yet. That period of invisibility is more than an administrative inconvenience, it’s a real and quantifiable exposure problem.

A Systemic Risk That Builds Like a Naughty List

When carriers cannot see risks as they are written, they’re effectively flying blind. They may unknowingly carry exposures that fall outside of appetite, stretch capacity, or breach contract terms. By the time the bordereaux arrives, the risks may already be bound, claims could already be developing, and the opportunity for early intervention has passed.

This accumulates into what we call a systemic “naughty list.” Not because coverholders are acting in bad faith, but because manual bordereaux processes simply can’t keep up with the pace and volume of delegated business today. Despite the festive wrapping, the underlying issue is serious: carriers lack the timely, accurate data needed to manage their portfolios responsibly.

And it doesn’t end there. Once the data finally reaches the insurer, bordereaux technicians are thrust into an unenviable Christmas-morning-like task: unpacking a tangled mess.

Endless rows of Excel data must be checked, validated, reconciled, queried, and, in some cases, corrected. It’s not unlike spending your Christmas Eve trying to untangle strings of lights, ribbons, and ornaments, the job is fiddly, frustrating, and more time-consuming than anyone would like to admit. Human error becomes almost inevitable, especially when dealing with millions of rows across multiple binders.

It’s labour-intensive, it slows down decision-making, and it puts unnecessary pressure on people whose expertise could be better spent elsewhere.

A Little Christmas Magic from distriBind

This is where distriBind comes in: sprinkling more than a little Christmas magic over the process, but with the practical, year-round impact insurers really need.

Where possible, we integrate directly with coverholders’ underwriting systems via APIs. This removes traditional spreadsheets altogether, providing carriers with near-real-time data instead of month-old snapshots. Think of it as replacing handwritten letters to the North Pole with instant messaging, faster, clearer, and far less prone to things getting lost in transit.

But we also understand that not every coverholder is ready or able to integrate. In those cases, when traditional bordereaux still arrive in all their spreadsheet glory, we take the heavy lifting off your team’s plate…no elves required.

Our platform automatically validates data across the entire policy lifecycle:

• Risk
• Premium
• Claims

Every file is checked instantly on arrival. Errors are flagged automatically. Breaches are highlighted. Out-of-terms issues are surfaced immediately. Instead of trawling through spreadsheets, your teams get actionable insights through clean, intuitive dashboards.

It’s like moving from a Christmas stocking full of mixed trinkets to perfectly wrapped, clearly labelled presents under the tree.

Real Results: Risks Turned Into Savings

The impact is not just theoretical. One of our clients recently uncovered more than £1,500,000 in claims they should never have paid - all because policies had been written outside contract terms. These weren’t obvious issues, either. They were deeply buried in rows of Excel data that no human analyst could realistically catch at scale.

With distriBind, problems like these surface instantly. The savings are real. The risk is reduced and carriers can regain confidence in the accuracy and timeliness of their delegated data.

Future-Proofing DA for the New Year

The festive season is a perfect moment to look ahead. As insurers plan for the new year, modernising DA operations becomes not just a good idea but an imperative. Manual bordereaux processes are no longer fit for purpose in a world where data-driven decision-making is essential.

With distriBind, you can:

• Reduce systemic underwriting risk
• Ensure data accuracy and completeness
• Improve operational efficiency
• Strengthen governance and oversight
• Free your talent from manual spreadsheet work
• Enhance your DA and program business workflows end-to-end

That means fewer surprises hiding under the tree, fewer headaches in January, and a more resilient, transparent delegated underwriting ecosystem for all involved.

Give yourself the gift of clarity this Christmas. Get in touch with distriBind to find out how we can help transform your DA processes for the year ahead.