Expansion, diversification and partnerships are popular New Year Resolutions

Perhaps unsurprisingly, expansion and diversification were two often mentioned themes when Intelligent Insurer asked re/insurance executives for their New Year’s resolutions in our year-end questionnaire.

But their responses were not always to achieve this via acquisition or by stealing market share—a softly-softly approach of doing this via partnerships seemed to be a big theme for many.

Iain Bremner, managing director, Barbican Managing Agency, noted that 2017 was another successful year for Barbican in facilitating the entrance of new companies into the Lloyd’s and the wider London Market, most recently with the establishment of Toa Re Special Purpose Arrangement (SPA 6132) which will introduce new business into the London Market and also expand Lloyd’s reach into the Japanese market.

“Our goal in 2018, will be to continue to seek opportunities to set up similar mutually beneficial partnerships. We are currently in discussions with a number of interested parties and we would hope that some of these discussions will lead to the launch of further platforms in the future,” Bremner said.

Julian Tighe, CEO, Asta, said he is seeking new business opportunities that truly add value to the market as a whole.

“One way we will do that is by building on the market’s existing efforts to expand internationally. We believe that Lloyd’s will do less flag-planting in the year ahead, and instead concentrate more on leveraging the flags it has already planted by bringing more business to London directly from its geographical sources.

“A substantial amount of very good risk fails to find its way here, even though it is attractive to the market, and would be a positive addition. Asta will continue to help it into Lloyd’s, one way or another.”

Ståle Hansen, president and CEO, Skuld, was more focused on growth but also consistency. “For 2018, our continued focus will remain on personalised service to brokers, members and clients. We anticipate further organic growth through our existing platforms.

“We aim to maintain our core focus on selection and quality tonnage, regardless of prevailing market conditions, and to continue delivering reliable, competitive, high quality service to our members.

“It is also crucial that we continue to invest in digitisation, to ensure that we remain efficient and relevant in our service to members, brokers and clients,” Hansen said.

Adam Safwat, vice president, underwriting & business development of IGI, was probably the most bullish of the respondents in his plans for 2018.

“I am not one for making New Year’s resolutions; I would prefer to use the approaching new year as a time to revisit progress made at IGI and to set out strategies for growth and prosperity for 2018. I would give the same advice to the insurance and reinsurance markets.

“Now is the time for the industry to learn from and react to the mistakes made and losses incurred in the past.

“For IGI, we will continue with our ambitious growth plans to expand in new and existing markets,” Safwat said.

This is just a snapshot of what executives told us in our Christmas questionnaire. For the full comments from all 16 executives who took part in our survey, please click here.