It’s a tough market, but Hiscox London Market’s Chief Underwriting Officer, Paul Lawrence believes his team is well equipped to meet the challenge.
Paul Lawrence, Hiscox London Market’s Chief Underwriting Officer, paints a bright picture for this year, despite the big challenges facing the London Market. Although growing headwinds are buffeting the business, in particular the rise of alternative capital and tough competition on pricing, Lawrence says: “Our business plan for 2015 is an even more [compared to 2014] ambitious growth target and we feel we’re up for the challenge. There is always new business for us to find...and I believe we have a great team of underwriters who will find it.
“We’ve brought in a new personal accident team...they’ve got very ambitious targets. We’ve also finished building out our casualty team [and] whilst there is a backdrop of pessimism in the market in general, I personally am really excited for Hiscox London Market. I think the team I’ve got working with me are some of the best in the market and that we have every chance of reaching or even exceeding our goals for 2015.”
Working with broker facilities
Lawrence also believes the rise of the broker facilities are positive for the market, providing the proper controls remain in place. “We have supported many of the facilities with the bigger brokers.” The Willis 360 underwriting facility, announced last year, also began to go live with its first risks: “I’m pleased to say that things are moving on nicely.”
Lawrence concludes: “We’ve made some good progress. There’s always more work to do. There’s always another broker we could be working with but overall, I’m really happy.”
