Aviva promises ‘more to come’ around scheme partnerships after mimicking MGA type tech

Insurer Aviva has promised that there is “more to come” in its schemes division after new tech introduction last year helps facilitate portfolio growth and “better conversations with brokers”, according to Rebecca Gambrell, managing director of SME and delegated authorities (DA) at Aviva.

In 2025, Aviva undertook a technology project to transform “very manual” and “bordereaux driven” schemes and DA processes into “much more digital” pathways that strove to remove “a lot of the blockers or barriers that [makes these processes] longer”.

Inspired by tech savvy MGAs unincumbered by legacy technology tools, the insurer introduced “a fully digitised, end to end referral process” for its schemes division from September last year, with a subsequent update to the technology landing in November 2025.

Gambrell told Insurance Times how the technology works in practice: “We’ve introduced new technology into our schemes trading centre that’s enabled us to fully digitise that journey.

“So, when a referral comes in from any one of our schemes brokers, we know where that referral is. We can allocate it to the right scheme owner, the scheme owner can pick it up. We know the timescales and can track the journey of that referral, which means that we can be much more responsive for our schemes brokers, we can get back to them quicker.

“For us, [this] is really about how can we be more efficient with our brokers? How can we make it a much easier and more transparent journey so that everybody’s in a more real-time environment, rather than a lagged environment, pushing [for] more of a proactive conversation between both parties, rather than a reactive one.”

Data driven

Gambrell is planning further developments to the new digital referral process, currently exploring how the insurer can better “ingest broker data to be able to be much more real-time and transparent with brokers and the information that we share [with them]”.

She believes such improvements can pivot schemes related conversations between brokers and insurers from being only focused on data sharing to instead home in more on scheme performance, providing greater opportunities to review gross written premium and claims results.

Gambrell explained: “Traditionally, where schemes and DAs have been very bordereaux driven, changes to that bordereaux can cause significant problems on both sides in terms of how you ingest it [and] the systems talking to each other.

“So, if you can remove that friction and share information in a much more fluid, dynamic way, then there’s that transparency between both parties about the risks that we’re writing, the mix on the portfolio, the exposure that we’ve got.

“Then, you can have a much more driven conversation around what’s actually in that portfolio, rather than trying to validate data. The conversation moves from being a data conversation to a portfolio conversation, or performance conversation.”

Aviva appetite

Aviva is currently involved in around 100 schemes with broker partners – however, Gambrell noted that the insurer’s tech changes will help the division gear towards growth.

She told Insurance Times: “Part of the reason that we are invested in enabling better portfolio management, better technology and service into the schemes world means that [we] can grow in that space and take on new schemes as well. So, definitely more to come in that space.

“The technology enables us to have better conversations with brokers and help support them and their customers in the growth that they want because there is visibility and transparency across the piece.

“A number of the conversations that we have with brokers, where they’ve looked at consolidating bits of business or bringing together some of their portfolios into [the] DA space, [our technology] enables us to do that. That’s what we want to do. We want to support brokers.”

In terms of the types of schemes that are within Aviva’s appetite, Gambrell confirmed that the insurer preferred niche specialist areas where brokers have “got that deep, embedded expertise” in lines that are “not necessarily a day-to-day, open market type risk”.

For Gambrell, successful insurer-broker schemes partnerships are centred on “trust and transparency”.

She continued: “In the schemes area, where [brokers have] got that specialism and expertise, you should let them grow, nurture that area and be supportive from a capacity provider perspective.

“So, [these relationships are based on] trust, transparency and then it’s working with the broker in terms of the areas that they might want to grow or look to expand into. It’s about having that open relationship with them.

“The schemes and DA world becomes more complicated if you’re trying to do the broker’s job for them and we absolutely don’t want to do that. We want to support them. We recognise, particularly in our schemes area, that they are the expert and they’ve got the knowledge in that space. We want to be able to nurture that for them.”