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Insurance News
The British Insurance Brokers’ Association has encouraged Brokers to use its Flood directory to ensure eligible households that are denied cover can still be offered it. Registration for the directory was opened in October last year by Biba, Flood Re and the Association of British Insurers. The directory is designed to provide a route to access cover for consumers who are struggling to obtain Flood insurance.
Broadway Insurance Brokers tripled gross written premium in the past 12 months hitting £4.5m, CEO Daniel Lloyd-John has confirmed. Altrincham-based Broadway was launched in the early months of the pandemic to focus on high net worth business. According to the firm, the value of corporate and private assets for which it arranges cover doubled to more than £1.25bn during only its second year in business.
Companies House has removed a listing of a First Gazette notice for compulsory strike-off against Arthur J. Gallagher Holdings (UK) Limited. A Companies House spokesperson said: “We can confirm the company is up to date with its filing requirements and the public register now reflects that. We apologise for any confusion.”
Managing General Agent Iprism has added its tradesman, contractors and professionals product to the Acturis trading platform. It is a continuation of Iprism seeking to broaden its distribution and allow more Brokers access to its core product through software houses. In January the specialist Construction, Property, Commercial and high net worth MGA added the product to the SSP platform.
The Financial Conduct Authority has alerted the market and consumers to a clone of authorised Insurer HDI Global SE. The watchdog warned that the scammers were using the title HD Global and operated from the website hdglobal.io.
Pricing in the UK market continued to harden across all classes in the second quarter except for Directors and Officers’ insurance, according to the latest report by Aon. Cyber again led the way with the Broker citing a more than 30% rise in keeping with the figure in its Q1 calculations. Capacity for Cyber was constrained, the firm detailed, with geopolitical events in Eastern Europe creating additional uncertainty and new complexity in an already challenged market.
Global Risk Partners has reported an operating profit of £71.3m for the year ended 31 March 2022 in its final set of results under private equity ownership. The figures for the period ahead of being snapped up by Brown & Brown for £1.48bn also showed rising turnover coming in at £201m. The Brown & Brown deal completed in July.
H&H Insurance Brokers has opened an office in Wrexham to be its administrative hub for its Wales operation. According to the firm, the move reflects its growth across Wales, Shropshire and Cheshire. The business already has bases at Ruthin Farmers’ Auction Mart and St Asaph Livestock Mart in North Wales.
Zego has partnered with QBE to expand its Fleet insurance offerings. QBE will initially underwrite Zego’s behaviour-led Fleet product which makes use of telematics data to provide a full picture of a Fleet’s risk profile as well as sharing actions a Fleet can take to improve their risk.
Specialist Insurer Ecclesiastical has launched a new enhanced Art and Private Client policy to the market. The Insurer detailed the high net worth Home insurance product is designed to provide comprehensive and flexible cover to meet the evolving needs of clients’ lifestyles. The Art and Private Client policy now includes Cyber Damage, Cyber-Crime and Online Liability cover as standard. Ecclesiastical also has optional additional covers including Business Cover and Travel insurance.
The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has teamed up with education company Pearson to support the launch of T Levels courses. Initially launched in September 2020, T Levels have been developed in collaboration with employers and businesses to meet the needs of the insurance and financial services professions and prepare students for work, further training, or study. It offers students a combination of classroom learning and on-the-job experience during a work placement of at least 315 hours, equal to around 45 days.
AXA Switzerland is ruing the day it presented a crash test – with the aim of demonstrating the risk of battery fires in electric vehicles (EVs) – using a Tesla without battery cells. In a statement, the Insurer said: “In light of the reactions to the crash test carried out on August 25, 2022, AXA Switzerland wishes to clarify its position… We regret that this year’s edition of the crash tests appears to have given a false impression and created some confusion in relation to electromobility. Regrettably, we realised after the fact that the test and related communication measures could be misleading, particularly for those who were not present at the crash tests and were thus not able to place them in the correct context, given that they were not party to the related commentary.”
A Freedom of Information (FOI) request from insurance broking and risk management firm Gallagher investigated the scale of Cyber-crime against UK councils, with 161 local authorities sharing information. Based on the proportion of councils who shared data on Cyber-attacks, the size of the problem is likely to be significantly greater. Scaling up these figures accordingly to reflect response rates, the true number of attacks across all councils is estimated to be more than 11 million in 20224.
In further news...Gallagher has invested in Novidea’s insurance broking platform to develop it for its specialty client base. According to Gallagher, the platform will be a pioneer in the market and improve client service. It will cover all stages of the broking lifecycle, from enquiry and quotation to policy issuance, claims, and settlement.
Mergers & Acquisitions
Seventeen Group is poised to strike more deals before the end of this year and into 2023 with European expansion on the agenda, according to CEO Paul Anscombe. The Broker refinanced with Ares Management in July and has snapped up three Brokers this month. The first was Bryce Smith & Partners, followed by CCRS and then Broker Scotland, all for undisclosed sums.
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Movers & Shakers
Markerstudy has appointed Clare Lunn to a new role of Head of Fraud. Lunn will be responsible for leading and developing Markerstudy’s fraud prevention strategy and will report to COO Gary Hueting. Joining from LV, Lunn has worked in counter-fraud for nearly nine years.
Sompo International Head of Delegated Underwriting Paul Uprichard has been appointed as Deputy Chair of the International Underwriting Association of London’s (IUA) Delegated Authority Underwriting Group.
Vitesse has made three appointments to its senior management team, with Richard King as COO, Ashley Abdelmoula as Head of Insurance Proposition and Bill Wilkins as Chief Product and Technology Officer. King joins from fintech WorldRemit, Wilkins joins from First Utility, where he was part of the founding team of 30 people and Abdelmoula held several senior roles in insurance, reinsurance, captives, and fund and wealth management over the course of almost three decades.
Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM), part of Liberty Mutual Insurance Group, announced the promotion of Adam Clark to the role of Senior Underwriter – Financial Risk Solutions, effective immediately. In his new role, Clark will support the further development of LSM’s Short Term Trade Finance business, enhancing the unit’s underwriting capabilities and further strengthening Broker relationships. He will also continue to engage with industry developments in digitisation to bolster LSM’s execution and portfolio management in this line of business.
The UK P&I Club has confirmed that William Beveridge will begin his role as Chief Underwriting Officer on 17 September. In the role, he will be responsible for oversight of all Club’s underwriting policies and operations. He joins from Newline Underwriting, the international insurance division of Odyssey Group, where he served as CUO.
QIC Global, the international specialty insurance and reinsurance subsidiary of Qatar Insurance Group, has appointed Stewart Smith as Business Development Officer, effective immediately. The provider detailed that Smith has worked in the London market for more than 40 years holding senior roles at several large Brokers, including Aon and Willis Re. He joins from McGill and Partners where he was a Partner.
Global Insurer Sompo International has hired industry veteran Ralph Brand to serve as President of the company’s Continental Europe operations. Brand’s credentials span years spent at Allianz, AIG, and Zurich in various geographical markets. He most recently served as Global Head of Casualty, Financial Lines & Cyber.
HIVE Underwriters is expanding into the General Aviation (GA) class with the appointment of Jay Wigmore as Class Underwriter. Wigmore most recently served as Head of General Aviation and Product Development at Tokio Marine Kiln, where he spent the last 21 years.
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All information provided in this Market Digest has been gathered from multiple General Insurance Media sources and individual company press releases.
