The Voice of Insurance

One of the most eye-catching parts of the Lloyd’s of London Blueprint reforms has been the Syndicate in a box initiative. The idea of a fast-track, light-touch, low-cost, fast-fail Syndicate has gone down very well with the market. This is because over the past two decades many players have bemoaned the steadily increasing cost of starting a new Lloyd’s business and have wondered where the next generation of new Hiscoxes, Kilns, Catlins and Beazleys might come from given that barriers to entry are now prohibitively high. The received wisdom over that time has been that MGAs had become to the go-to place for entrepreneurial underwriters to  prove their mettle. But while the Syndicate in a box initiative was well received as an idea, the only trouble was that many in the market were a little confused about what the new structures can and cannot do in practice. And that is why I tracked down this episode’s guest. As the active underwriter of the first and currently only Syndicate in a box, Stuart Newcombe of Munich Re innovation Syndicate 1840 is uniquely positioned to enlighten us all on this exciting new departure for the Lloyd’s community. Stuart is an engaging and personable character with over thirty years experience in the market. I really enjoyed chatting with him and exploding some of the myths around the new structures. But what I liked more was hearing all about what the syndicate is up to. This includes guarantee products for solar panels and energy saving schemes, ideas to insure the gig economy and autonomous vehicles, as well as lots of interesting angles on the use of parametric insurance to fill in the gaps left by traditional indemnity cover. I think you’ll enjoy it too...

This podcast is a new feature - I’m calling it Voice of Insurance Solo. It is really an editorial in podcast form – let me know what you think. Is insurance going to get unfairly punished by governments and judiciaries for the systemic global failures exposed by the Covid 19 pandemic? And if so might state-backed Pandemic Reinsurance vehicles be the logical result of the new deal that will follow any government raids on our coffers? Listen on for thoughts and opinion...  

How well prepared is the 2020 global insurance industry for the challenge of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic? The best thing about being a journalist is about being able to access the top minds and experts to make sense of the world. So today with economies and our clients being forcibly shut down, events cancelled, sovereign and corporate bonds undergoing spectacular gyrations and share prices tumbling globally, (with insurers stock falling more than the market average), I wanted to talk to someone smart to help ordinary people like me and you to understand a little bit of what is happening and what might be at stake. So that is why I’m delighted that this episode’s guest is David Flandro Managing Director, Analytics at Hyperion X. Longstanding listeners will remember David from Episode 3 where he was talking about the 1st of January renewals. I originally had this interview with David slated to be about the fourth quarter and full- year 2019 results season that has just past. But given the circumstances I thought that that would be inappropriate. Listen on for a state of David’s thinking about how the industry is likely cope with the covid-19 crisis on the risk and the asset side of its balance sheet. There are plenty of caveats of course but David gives us a lot to think about, somethings to worry about and some measure of assurance. in times of crisis I always seek out the brightest and most eloquent and David is certainly both...  

The hardening market and the upcoming renewals, ILS, the vexing casualty question and of course the mega-brokers getting bigger - this interview doesn't miss anything out. Jonathan Parry is a highly experienced and well-regarded underwriter with many decades of experience. He knows the insurance and reinsurance markets inside and out. If you don’t know him already I think you’ll like him – and you will learn a lot from him He’s also quite a rare character in that he spent the first half of his career as a broker. This gives him a really well rounded perspective on how insurance and reinsurance works and what clients really want from their underwriters. He is always polite and good humoured but he is firm and has strong convictions and he doesn’t pull any punches.  Jonathan is handing over the QBE Re underwriting mantle at the beginning of April and plans to retire next year. This candid interview gives a career long perspective on what is happening in reinsurance today and what is right and what is wrong...

This episode’s guest is Toby Esser, chairman of independent London wholesale broker AFL. Toby is a veteran of the London market broking scene and is the former CEO of Cooper Gay which grew manyfold under his ambitious and energetic leadership both organically and by high-profile M&A. I have interviewed Toby many times over the years and it shows in this interview. Toby is not shy and his personality shines through. We have a really wide ranging discussion from growing an independent business and handling the precocious prima-donna-like talent without which no broker could function, AON-Willis and MMC-JLT as well as the coronavirus, insurtech, market reform and culture change in insurance! I really enjoyed this one and I think you will too!

In this episode I’m talking to Nicolas Aubert, Head of Great Britain at Willis Towers Watson and CEO of Willis Limited. As a Frenchman who has forged a successful career in London, in many ways he is a personal embodiment of the kind of global, multi-faceted and diverse marketplace that London would like to present to the world. The insurance market has been through a lot of soul searching in the past 12 months as every aspect of its culture has been examined in minute detail . Stories of bad behaviour and discrimination have filled the mainstream media and been broadcast all around the world. But starting quite a few years before the scandals started to break, the insurance sector has embarked on a huge programme of education, self-examination and change around the subject of diversity and inclusion. Nicolas has been right at the heart of that major shift for many years and that is the topic of our discussion today. He is also currently in charge of 4500 people, so he is pretty well qualified. If you’re the sort of person who would rather not engage with this topic I would urge you to tune in. That’s because you are actually exactly the sort of person who really must listen the most!

Dan Trueman is global Head of Cyber at Axis Insurance and is one of the true cyber market pioneers with a 20 year career centred on insuring unconventional enterprise risks. He has developed into an industry spokeperson and an ambassador for the cyber class globally. In our wide-ranging discussion we got to the heart of what has triggered the explosion in cyber growth and the latest in price, demand and loss trends. Listen and discover why Dan thinks that cyber cover will never again be as cheap as it is today. We also dissected all the innovations around cyber modelling and the work going on to maximise the reinsurance and alternative capital that can be brought to bear on this potentially systemic global risk so that its growth story can continue. We also looked at regulation and the thorny issue of silent or non affirmative cyber cover. I really enjoyed our talk and I’m sure you will too.

If you are not a techie but want to be properly informed about what is coming down the Insurtech track and want to know how analogue insurance folk should be reacting, this podcast is 100% designed for you. I caught up with Matthew Grant and fellow Instech London founder Robin Merttens earlier in the month. Matthew and Robin are decades-long veterans of what we now call Insurtech and have spent careers bridging the often sizeable gap between insurance and technology. They do it so we don't have to. Back in 2015 they founded Instech London which hosts a regular monthly get-together for entrepreneurs, venture capitalists service providers, early adopters and people working in the incumbent insurance industry who are curious about new technologies and how they will affect insurance. In this episode we have a wide-ranging discussion that includes a debate about the difference between merely digitising and going fully digital, as well as an examination of insurance’s often difficult relationship with technological change. I think it's a really useful listen... NOTES: Start-up companies mentioned: Concirrus: https://www.concirrus.com Exante: https://www.exante.io/ Blink: https://blinkblink.io/ Riskbook: https://riskbook.com/

There is a lot to play for in 2020 The reinsurance market has a lot invested in the major 2020 renewals and has high expectations of re-pricing in April, June and mid-year. Japanese Typhoon has been active in the last couple of seasons and loss development has re-written the models and taken everybody by surprise. Florida has been busy developing its losses of 2017 and 2018 in new and surprising ways. And of course tension has been building in the US casualty world which renews in mid-year. Original rates have moved sharply upwards and loss trends and reserving have been coming under a bright spotlight. That’s why I was really lucky to catch up with Steve Arora the CEO of Axis Re at Axis’s fantastic London offices in the shiny and angular new skyscraper in the building opposite Lloyd’s known colloquially as the Scalpel. Axis Re wrote $3.2bn of gross premium in 2019 and has an ambition to break into the top 10 global reinsurers. Steve took up his post at Axis Re just over 2 years ago. In our talk we dissect all the dynamics of the big 2020 renewal seasons in a lot of detail - and much more besides...

The Voice of Insurance was lucky enough to catch up with Phil Smaje the CEO and Marcel Chad the President of newly-launched London-based aviation challenger broker Piiq Risk Partners. Piiq is part of BGC Partners, which is also the owner of wholesale brokers Ed Broking and Besso. It is an interesting new addition to the line-up of London specialty intermediaries because Phil and Marcel are both aviation veterans with long careers at the major brokers. The timing is also fascinating because whilst other segments of the global market are merely hardening, there is no doubt that all parts of the aviation insurance and reinsurance market are in full correction-mode and are experiencing the kind of genuine hard market that doesn’t come along very often. Do enjoy the listen. Phil and Marcel tell a really interesting story about their plans for Piiq at a pivotal time for the aviation market. My first question was to Phil, asking him to tell the story behind the formation of Piiq and explain what it was all about. The word disprupt is overused in our industry but Phil got straight to the point with his first answer...   Notes and links: www.piiqrp.com