Standardized London market document carrying a risk's terms and collecting carriers' signatures, successor to the handwritten slip and basis of electronic placement.
For more than two centuries the London market contracted on a slip, a sheet carried from box to box on which each underwriter stamped its share. The method worked while the market fitted in one building, and it produced ambiguities litigation later revealed: terms referring to clauses not attached, uncertain order of precedence, contradictory handwritten notes. The market reform contract succeeded it, with a prescribed heading structure covering risk, cover, financial terms, applicable clauses, claims handling and information security arrangements, and a clear contract certainty rule requiring all terms to be settled before inception rather than completed afterward. Its standardization made electronic placement possible, since a document with a known structure can be transmitted, signed and archived in a system. It also had a lasting effect on litigation: a contract with fixed headings leaves far less room for interpretation than a free-form sheet.
The London market adopted the contract certainty principle following the British regulator's public intervention in 2004, which found that a large share of risks incepted before terms were settled. The standardized market reform contract that followed was rolled out from 2007, and it is today the native format of the market's electronic placement platforms.
MRC, market reform contract, slip, note de placement, document de souscription standardisé