ProgramBusiness.com rolls Out ‘Trading Floor’ for Retailers, Wholesalers, Underwriters

ProgramBusiness.com, a portal for retailers, wholesalers, MGAs and carriers, has opened ProgramBusiness.com Trading Floor, where retailers and wholesalers can post single accounts and books of business to be viewed by underwriters.

“More and more agencies are finding themselves in a position of needing commercial markets,” Jeff Neilson, president of ProgramBusiness.com, remarked. “Accounts that were once considered standard business are now being sized up for the specialty market. In some cases the challenge is finding a market, but the larger issue is getting a timely response back from an MGAs, MGU, wholesaler or company underwriter.”

The Trading Floor is a tool to address this concern, Neilson said. As an open-architecture, objective search engine within the ProgramBusiness.com site to locate markets in placing specialty programs, the Trading Floor connects all levels of the supply chain within the property/casualty industry. There is a nominal membership fee charged by ProgramBusiness.com—but no commission-based charges.

There are more than 20,000 retail agencies, 2,000 wholesalers, and many major reinsurers and companies in the ProgramBusiness.com community, Neilson remarked. The underwriting community includes AIG’s Lexington, Hub Group’s Ranger, GE Westport, Hull & Co., S.H. Smith, Norman Spencer McKernan, Americana Financial, and various MGAs of Gulf Insurance Co., among others, Neilson said. These companies are part of the 60-plus ProgramBusiness.com “Storefronts.”

Once an agency or wholesaler submits a book of business or single account, the Trading Floor immediately notifies participating Storefronts (i.e., MGAs, wholesalers and carriers) interested in the account or accounts. Notification is sent via e-mail and filters through an algorithm of two, four and six digit-specific industry classifications (SIC codes) matching the appetite of the participating Storefronts. Agents submitting business also can protect the identify of potential accounts they are trying to place, and even can block any carrier, MGA or wholesaler that may be the incumbent market.

Aside from participating Storefronts, the site also offers a white pages directory search engine for more than 2,000 additional wholesalers, MGAs and carriers.