Insurance Age - Is imarket making the world a smaller place?

Insurance Age - Is imarket making the world a smaller place?: "Is imarket making the world a smaller place?
This month the panel discusses the extent to which imarket has been embraced and what direction it needs to move in
Imarket - where are we now and where are we going?
Peter: Imarket was launched in November 2003, so it has been running for two and a half years now. We started off with six insurers and now have 10 on board. Initially, we started with no broker firms signed up but we now have over 2,300. In addition, imarket started with zero transactions and we now have approximately 25,000 a month. I admit that we probably did raise expectations too high in the early stages. We know there were a number of brokers that went on and had a look but they didn't find everything they were looking for and have never gone back. One of our aims is to bring them back to have another look.
Mark: Do you think that, in terms of signing up additional insurers, the confidentiality you are required to have in place has restricted growth? For example, you talk about transactions but you aren't able to say exactly what those transactions are? I am sure insurers would be more interested if they understood that the conversion rate (quote to bind) was high but you aren't allowed to release that information are you?
Peter: Yes, it certainly makes selling imarket more difficult but we have to be really careful about competition law.
Mark: Is there a way that the insurers on one of the imarket panels could agree, as a group, to share average figures in order to help bring other insurers to the table?
Peter: I don't know if that would be allowed.
Phil: If you look at personal lines, that also took a while to take off but once it did, I think they printed the EDI figures through the Association of British Insurers "