Lloyd's chief executive Richard Ward has said the London insurance market has to get back to basics and deliver what its customers want - or face the consequences.

Speaking on the opening day of the recent Xchanging conference in Brighton, Ward said customers expect more and the London Market needs to deliver.

He said: “We are basically a service industry that seems to have forgotten what its customers want and need. To an outsider it must seem baffling that an industry that deals with some of the most complex global risks and contains some of the brightest minds cannot grasp technology and process change. To me it's not about ability, it's about aptitude. The industry has to want to change. In recent years, there has been evidence that things are changing but progress is still too slow.”

He continued: “We need to refocus attention on service standards. This is key to keeping business, driving down costs and effectively competing with our competitors.”

Ward went on to warn delegates that: “With increased globalisation and competition we ignore our customer's needs at our peril. Over the past 20 years, customers have simply come to expect more. Customer loyalty is now not just based on the quality of a product, it is much more than that - brand name and customer experiences are just as important.” When asked what he thought needed to change in the market, Ward claimed that: “Even as a relative newcomer to the industry this is not difficult to answer. We need to reduce the volumes of paper, speed up processing and ensure that policy documents and claims are delivered and paid on time.

“Basically, insurers need to be clear on what their capital is being used for precisely; for insureds to receive a clear description of what they have bought - preferably before cover starts and for brokers to minimise the risks that they run in bridging between the expectations of the client and of the insurers.”