Allianz AGCS mulls alternative risk transfer expansion with major hiring spree

Allianz Group’s corporate insurance carrier  Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) is planning to expand in the alternative risk transfer (ART) space with a raft of new hires and product offerings to target the growing interest in tailored solutions in the current ‘hard’ market.

The insurer’s ART line of business will mainly target multi-year, multi-line structured insurance, with a focus on captive solutions, in particular captive fronting, the company’s global head of ART Grant Maxwell has suggested.

The move will result in creation of dozens of new roles across the whole value chain in business critical functions including operations, accounting, actuarial, claims and multinational.

“We are currently about 100 ART specialists globally, and we now plan to recruit 20 more people in the ART line and also a dozen others in other functions,” Maxwell said.

The goal is to offer customised, flexible solutions at a much bigger scale where traditional cover is not available or is too expensive.

“The rate increases may be softening in some areas, but we are still in a hard market phase. That means it's difficult and/or more expensive for many clients to buy traditional covers,” he said.

Maxwell said its solutions will be targeted towards clients that are “prepared to have more skin in the game, but at the same time they want to manage any downside risks from large loss scenarios and protect their balance sheet from too strong volatility.”

Another area the insurer is looking to develop is addressing environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues such as climate change risk or green energy including using parametric techniques.

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