Aon's full electronic trading could shake up London market.

The announcement by broker Aon UK that it will adopt full electronic trading this year moves the London insurance market a bit closer to a long-sought goal.

The change, involving Aon's specialist insurance and reinsurance operations, was to begin in July. "In the near future all contracts and endorsements distributed by Aon in London can be signed online, not on paper," the broker said in a statement.

Offers, quotes and signed lines will go directly into the underwriting systems of insurers and reinsurers, Aon said. The elimination of entry duplication will reduce errors and provide both clarity and contract certainty, according to Aon. The result, Aon said, will be better world-wide access to London-based insurers.

The U.K. Financial Services Authority is pressing the London market to bring in an acceptable level of contract certainty by the end of this year. Contract certainty is defined as the complete and final agreement of all terms between insurers and clients before an agreement takes effect.

Aon, which is part of Aon Corp., has built its system around the requirements of ACORD, the global insurance data standards association.

The broker has worked closely with the group of six large Lloyd's underwriters--known as the G6-that has been promoting a technology initiative. Lloyd's itself has come to grief over the expensive failure of Kinnect, its own technology platform.