A welcome change

Change is often unappealing, particularly when the status quo is familiar and steeped with heritage. And, change is clearly afoot at Lloyd’s.

In the past year, Lloyd’s doesn’t seem to have been out of the industry news. Like Brexit, there’s always a story that can be written about Lloyd’s and, more specifically, change at Lloyd’s – both positive and negative.

With around 90 syndicates and 40 managing agencies all trading independently, with different interests, different short- and long-term goals, different investors, you could say that the Corporation of Lloyd’s has an almost impossible task of managing the market for the greater good.

Following a recent meeting with Lloyd’s CEO John Neal, the Insurance Insider interpreted and summarised his priorities under seven headings:

  1. Distribution
  2. Underwriting
  3. Product
  4. Data
  5. Service
  6. Growth
  7. Capital

As a relatively young syndicate, established in extremely soft market conditions, we have always known we couldn’t simply be a ‘me too’ syndicate. So we set out to be different, in a number of ways which are somewhat in tune with these groupings.

  1. DISTRIBUTION

Since opening for business in 2015, we’ve been clear of our intention to ‘bring the Lloyd’s market to you’, because we believe that everybody should be able to access high quality Lloyd’s insurance products wherever they are in the world. We’ve designed and built proprietary technology to support this belief.

One of our core strategies was, and still is, to focus on new and accretive business from territories where Lloyd’s has the potential to grow its market share, where it’s typically been underweight and where the business would otherwise not come into the Lloyd’s market.

Our hub in Mexico City has been the first step in selectively broadening the Probitas distribution network.

 

  1. UNDERWRITING & PRODUCTS

Our underwriting strategies, across all of the lines of business, have been built on bespoke solutions as opposed to a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.

Our underwriters have the autonomy and discipline to assess the business they see and make an informed decision based on the merits of each risk.

Flexibility has enabled us to build niche, cross-class product solutions that offer true value to both the policyholder and the broker.

We continuously review and refine our underwriting models to reflect loss experience, exposure development and market conditions to ensure we deploy our capacity in the optimum manner.

 

  1. DATA

Right at the forefront of our business, data and analytics plays a vital role in enabling our flexible approach, ensuring that our underwriters have the information they need to make an informed decision.

It’s no surprise, therefore, that we’ve invested heavily in our data and will continue to do so.

Meanwhile, it’s very pleasing to read this week that Syndicate 1492 has been named as one of the 5 syndicates to have adopted e-placement via PPL the quickest.

 

  1. SERVICE

Insurance is a service industry, so it should be high on all syndicates agendas.

We firmly believe in serving both our brokers and their clients from inception through the lifetime of their policy. Wherever possible, we seek to build long and lasting relationships, and not just annual transactions.

Part of our key service offering is our claims service.

Claims is ‘when the rubber hits the road’, so we’ve worked hard to establish an efficient claims process, investigating and settling claims in the most pragmatic and expedient manner possible.

 

With so many of our core beliefs aligning with the points John Neal discussed with the Insurance Insider, it’s no wonder that we welcome the positive change at Lloyd’s. From our part, we will continue our efforts to build a modern syndicate with traditional values that allows us to treat our policyholders fairly and reward our investors.