Asta plots more hires to grow in MGA space
Asta Capital’s newly launched managing general agent (MGA) platform, Asta Underwriting Management (AUM), has appointed Sian Fisher as non-executive director of the board, in the first of what will be a series of hires.
Speaking to Monte Carlo Today, Julian Tighe, CEO, and Simon Norton, director of underwriting at Asta, said that Fisher will help to guide AUM in order to innovate and raise the company’s profile within the MGA space.
“Sian brings a wealth of experience. If she is going to tell us what we’re doing right as well as what we’re doing wrong along the way, then great,” said Norton.
Tighe added: “We don’t pretend that we know things we don’t—and we don’t know the MGA space as well as we know the Lloyd’s space.
“Sian is a founding member of the Managing General Agents’ Association, who are trying to apply decent standards to the market and raise the profile of MGAs, so she’ll be a great asset to us.”
Tighe revealed that Fisher is the first of more executives to be announced in the coming weeks, and said that building AUM is a natural step for the company.
“The core until now has been managing underwriting businesses, primarily focused on the Lloyd’s market, so it makes sense to do this in the MGA space,” he said.
“MGAs are becoming much more important features of the London Market, and we’re looking to build out this business.”
Tighe said that the company will look both within and away from the London Market.
“We’re underweight in the UK and Europe and there are some fantastic opportunities there—particularly in western Europe. The London players have been fairly lazy about that in the past,” he explained.
Tighe added that the company sees itself more as a managing general underwriter than an MGA, meaning that it is more risk carrier-focused and not just about the underwriter.
He said that the Financial Conduct Authority had described Asta as ‘putting a kitemark on the MGA space’, and that so far, it had achieved great results with its first client, Pelican.
