Aviva will steer clear of cyber beyond SME amid fresh thrust into commercial lines

Aviva will keep UK cyber exposure at arm's length, largely limiting coverage to umbrella deals in the SME space and foreswearing large-cap clients, company officials said Tuesday (January 18).

"We have a cautious approach," Nick Major (pictured), managing director for commercial lines at Aviva unit UK General Insurance, told an investor conference. "Our position is really on supporting our SME customers in this space."

Aviva admits to a "very modest" effort to "push our appetite up into the mid-market space," but that remains a very tentative endeavour, he said.

Large-cap ventures in cyber aren't likely. "I don't imagine us going into the large corporate segment at any time soon," Major said.

Nor would cyber be any part of the offer Aviva will present as it makes a fresh stab at the London market for global corporates. Aviva's stance will be honed as a "multi-niche" provider, with clear exclusions, officials said.

Aviva secures "significant reinsurance" for all cyber policy, leaving a net exposure at levels Major would call "modest."

Rates in cyber certainly look attractive, officials admited, but the run-up reflects "a lot of discipline in deployment of capacity" with large swaths of the market showing a similar distance to cyber, Major suggested.

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