Speaking at the Insurance Institute of London, Mr Ward said the aim was not to deliver electronic trading but to facilitate a more efficient transfer of information across the market and increase the service to clients.

He warned that the market needed to up its service levels if it was to thrive.

“How many times have you gone to a restaurant and have some great food but with terrible service, which has made you decide not to go back however good the food was? The market has a wonderful reputation for the underwriting expertise and the products we can provide but the level of service remains below the standards of underwriting excellence we have built that reputation on,” he said. “If we do not improve the service we give to clients then they will go elsewhere.”

He said the market had made progress on a number of technology and process reform initiatives but added that it started from a low base and was still behind some of its peers in other areas of the financial services sector.

He was at pains to squash any talk that the plan was to create a virtual underwriting room saying the face to face discussions between broker and underwriter remained vital to the market given the specialist nature of the risks that were underwritten in Lime Street.

Mr Ward said the decision had been taken to ask the market to use the Lloyd’s Exchange for the transaction of endorsements using a new Acord standard which will be issued next month.

He said while there would be some who would say that the transmission of standard endorsements electronically was not setting too high a hurdle it was the first step in what he believed would be significant progress in the future.

He also revealed that he already has the support of two of the world’s big three brokers and said he was working hard to get the final one of the big three to commit to the use of the exchange.