Andreessen's insightful article below highlights, from a thought leaders perspective, where the markers are moving - online.

In the past two days I have attended two very interesting panel discussions across the banking and insurance sector. These were held by Simmons Simmons and Barclays UK chaired by Angus McLean . The second was held by Lloyds of London, chaired by John Nelson.

The topic of conversation was the new wave of innovators entering their market place and what to do. The banking scene have been wise to this 'fintech' movement for sometime now and have adapted through working with accelerators such as Barclays Techstars or StartupBootCamp however insurance is just beginning to react. A telling quote from Inga Beale, CEO of Lloyds: "We have been stuck in the dark ages...we need to be at the forefront of technology innovation".

I do not claim to be an expert in either market however I am fortunate to share company with several experts I work with that have provided insight into inefficiences.

My takeaway from both events is that communication is key to succeeding with these innovators. As Marc comments below software is eating the world and these new innovators are online. Paolo Cuomo, Charles Taylor, summed this up perfectly by commenting "A bright Instech start-up asked me the other day - 'who are these guys at Willis and what do they do?'" it could not be a clearer message for the entire insurance market that they need to locate these individuals and communicate for the very reason that Shrine Khoury-Haq, Operations Director of Lloyds commented: "Through collaboration we can get to an Instech". The closing remark and slide by John Nelson listed all the methods to continue the discussion, interestingly these were all online. It is an exciting time for all industries and The London Insurance Market has a great management team to take advantage of the opportunities.