AssuredPartners’ double swoop; LMA and Liiba’s collab; Pen’s IP proposition

From Insurance Post this week:

Insurers and Ukrainian government to split Black Sea shipping risks

Ten arrested in commercial fraud crackdown

Planned Lloyd’s investment venture scrapped at eleventh hour

IFB reveals how AI has sped up detection of fraudulent claims

Five key takeaways from Post’s AI roundtable

From People this week:

ManyPets completes flurry of executive hires as CEO Oleazu departs

CFC’s Newman on why scaremongering won’t shift cyber policies

Q&A: Robin Gilthorpe and Erez Barak, Earnix

Diary of an Insurer: Genasys’ Gavin Peters

Pick of the week:

AssuredPartners buys Romero Group and Atom Insurance Brokers

Date announced: 31 October

Deal value: N/A

AssuredPartners has bought Leeds-based Romero Group, which includes Romero Insurance Brokers Limited, it’s subsidiary Sentient Group Limited and Club Insure Limited.

Founded in 1997 by Justin Romero-Trigo, Romero controls more than £100m of GWP and employs 205 staff across five regional offices.

All staff will stay in place post acquisition under the leadership team of group CEO, Justin Romero-Trigo, group managing director, Simon Mabb and group chief operations officer, Victoria Romero-Trigo.

David Heathfield, CEO of AssuredPartners UK and Ireland, said: “It’s not just the scale of Romero that sets it apart from its independent peers but the way in which the business has been structured to ensure clients receive an unrivalled level of service from placement to claims advocacy.

“Our largest acquisition to date, the addition of Romero to our growing group is a key milestone in our expansion plans and the combination of these two powerful brands will create better solutions for our clients and provide great opportunities for all staff. ”

AssuredPartners also announce the acquisition of Somerset-based Atom Insurance Brokers.

Founded in 2002, Atom Insurance Brokers specialises in commercial SME insurance across a wide range of industry sectors. Atom will become part of AssuredPartners-owned PSP Insurance brokers.

Arbol launches MGA with Global Reach

Date announced: 16 November

Deal value: N/A

Arbol is expanding into the UK by launching a London-based MGA poised to service the international insurance market outside the US.

Sid Jha, CEO and founder of Arbol, said: “Our expansion into the UK is a pivotal moment for Arbol. We aim to provide businesses with straightforward and practical tools to manage climate risks.”

Hector Ibarra, managing director of Arbol Insurance Services UK, said: “Arbol specialises in parametric financial products, offering businesses a streamlined approach to managing climate risks. Clients benefit from rapid claims payments once pre-set triggers are met.

“This ensures rapid economic recovery, simplified claims processing, and consistent cash flow for businesses.”

Arbol’s UK MGA offers a range of products for the agriculture, renewable energy, and construction industries. 

Stubben Edge launches platform

Date announced: 16 November

Deal value: N/A

UK-based fintech Stubben Edge has launched a small business pro platform delivered by the company’s business title, smallbusiness.co.uk.

SB Pro is a business membership that provides entrepreneurs, sole traders, and small businesses with cashflow, sales and protection tools to simplify their business management.

At launch, the subscription-based solution will comprise:

• A customer relationship management system where businesses can manage pipelines, appointments, quotes and invoices.
• A payment solution with fees from 1.25%.
• Interest able to be earned on business cash through bank accounts.
• Access to business finance via a dedicated funding platform.
• Tailored legal and employee protection, including jury service cover, criminal defence insurance and £10,000 personal term life insurance cover.
• A healthcare app offering 24/7 virtual GP, employee wellbeing and other healthcare benefits.
• Templates and advice line offering 24/7 legal and tax advice.

Chris Kenning, Stubben Edge group CEO, said: “By providing entrepreneurs with these tools at affordable rates, we are ultimately creating a pathway for better customer acquisition and retention over time.”

Lloyd’s Market Association and Liiba collaborate

Date announced: 14 November

Deal value: N/A

The Lloyd’s Market Association and the London and International Insurance Brokers’ Association have joined forces to tackle digital transformation in delegated authority business with the introduction of computable contracts.

Launched in late 2020, Project Dare focuses on putting distribution partners and customers at the forefront of a modern DA model.

The LMA and Liiba aim to drive efficiency and customer-centricity through the adoption of computable contracts, replacing the traditional word binding authority agreement.

Supported by Lloyd’s, the initiative will integrate a computable binding authority contract with Lloyd’s binding authority registration system, to enable automatic binding authority registration when utilising a computable binding authority agreement.

The move towards digital contracts is expected to enhance efficiency, ensure data accuracy and boost analytics for a digitally connected marketplace, retaining coverholder business within Lloyd’s.

London Insurance Market Operations & Strategic Sourcing will manage the development and provision of the market service.

Eleven Lloyd’s managing agents have already committed to adoption of the solution, covering 42% of the Lloyd’s directly authorised market.

Rob Myers, operations director at the LMA, said: “This initiative represents progress towards a historic milestone in the modernisation of the London market, and we would urge support from all stakeholders to harness its capabilities to drive growth, enhance operational efficiency and deliver cost savings.”

Christopher Croft, CEO of Liiba, added: “The delegated authority process is ripe for modernisation and improvement. We look forward to a productive collaboration.”

Chubb launches media product for UK

Date announced: 14 November

Deal value: N/A

Chubb has launched a new media insurance product for clients in the UK.

Alongside the launch, Chubb has also rebranded its existing UK Technology Industry Practice as the Technology and Media Practice to reflect its new focus.

The media offering includes bespoke coverages comprising media liability, cyber, property, terrorism, casualty and legal expenses.

All covers are optional and can be tailored to suit each client. It also features several value-added services, including a free legal advice helpline staffed by senior media lawyers. The product is targeted at middle market and multinational media companies and consultants operating in advertising, graphic design, public relations, brand development and publishing, including newspapers, magazines, radio and television.

The expanded team will see media sit alongside Chubb’s book of technology business which covers a broad range of risks and is targeted at companies involved with software development, internet and communication services, emerging technology and technology manufacturing.

The practice will be overseen by Louise Joyce, head of industry practices for EMEA, with Alex Smith, technology and media industry practice leader, heading a bespoke underwriting team.

Joyce said: “As this industry continues to grow and becomes increasingly specialised we want to better enable businesses operating in this sector to withstand some of the many and varied challenges they may face.”

Direct Commercial launches new broker portal

Date announced: 15 November

Deal value: N/A

Direct Commercial has launched its new broker portal providing brokers with more functionality and accessibility to the MGA’s services.

The portal offers brokers quicker and easier access to claims information and claims listings. Brokers are able to keep track of a claim’s progress with a claims progress tracker and apply appropriate filters to derive specific updates and insights about policyholder’s claims, for example by driver or claims type.

Direct Commercial will develop the portal in future phases to enable brokers to manage clients’ policies with features such as the ability to administer vehicle adjustments and access to a document repository set to be added.

And finally…

• Roshan Navagamuwa will join AIG in December and has been named executive vice president and chief information officer, effective January 2024. Navagamuwa will report to Peter Zaffino, AIG chairman and CEO, and will serve on AIG’s executive leadership team.

• Unum UK has announced the appointment of Hiscox UK CEO, Jon Dye, as independent Non-Executive Director.

• Cytora, the digital risk processing platform, has partnered with Veridion, a provider of AI-powered business data and market intelligence, enabling it to provide Veridion’s data to its customers.

• Broker Insights, which connects UK insurance brokers and insurance companies, has announced brokers will upload more than £5bn of annual GWP to its Broker Insights Vision platform this year.

• Insurance training specialist Zing365 has hired Andy Fairchild as non-executive director.

• Canopius Group has appointed Mark Newman as CEO for the UK. Newman takes up his new role from January 2024, transitioning from his current role as CEO for the Asia Pacific region.

• SiriusPoint has named Alex Hardy from RSA as director of sales and distribution for its international business.

• Aspen, in partnership with BCarm, a business continuity and risk management specialist, has launched Construction Wellbeing, to support the rising challenges associated with the mental health of employees working in the UK construction industry.

• RSA has made two hires in its global network team, with the appointments of Melissa Rayner and Christian Garcia as global network relationship managers.

• Pen Underwriting has launched an intellectual property insurance proposition.

• WTW has announced the launch of A Star, an excess layer directors’ and officers’ liability insurance solution.

• Allianz Partners has appointed Anna Kofoed as its new CEO of travel, and a member of the board.