Category: ARCHIVE 2013-15
On Victims of Love
Love is seemingly in the air in 2015 with the engagement of Axis to Partner Re recently announced hot on the heels of the betrothal of Catlin to XL. Guessing who will be next up the aisle is the favourite game in the coffee shops and wine bars of the London Market. Few doubt that by the end of this year, more companies will get … Continue reading On Victims of Love
On Charlie Hebdo
The murder of eight journalists in a monstrous terrorist attack at the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has understandably triggered global revulsion. Other atrocities of this scale have typically been condemned because citizens going about their daily life have been injured and killed. What happened in Paris was different. Instead journalists were targeted because of what they published. The human tragedy is of … Continue reading On Charlie Hebdo
On Diversity and Inclusion
Over the course of this year, a number of organisations in the London insurance market have publically committed to Lloyd’s Diversity and Inclusion Charter. A steering group of inclusion champions led by Aon’s Dominic Christian will be issuing guidance in 2015 on how signatories can get started on policies and practices to promote positive change in our industry. High on the list of priorities will … Continue reading On Diversity and Inclusion
On Wholesalers Endangered
The increasing dominance of the global brokers and the economic leverage that this provides is a strategic challenge for all insurers dependent upon them for significant premiums flows. Responses in the industry have varied but a growing number of companies are re-engineering the way they procure business from the big three; either paying to obtain data services or participating on proprietary risk placement platforms and in … Continue reading On Wholesalers Endangered
On Power to the People
A little out of fashion of late but there is still much to be learned from a bit of Marxist analysis. As students of the great bearded one’s work will know, he saw human evolution as a massive class struggle between the small number of bourgeoisie who own the means of production and the rest of us who toil away to produce their goods and … Continue reading On Power to the People
On Hearts and Minds
The Scots finally decide tomorrow whether they want independence following intense campaigning on both sides of the argument energized by recent poll results suggesting that our friends north of the currently symbolic border might indeed do what was thought impossible: exit the UK. At the time of writing the outcome of the referendum is on a knife-edge. If the Scottish electorate votes yes, it will … Continue reading On Hearts and Minds
On Leaving Europe
True, emotions were running high over the exorbitant costs of implementing Solvency II, widely seen as a project poorly mishandled in Brussels, but in adding his signature to an open letter to The Times in January 2013 supporting David Cameron’s yes/no referendum strategy on UK’s European Union (EU) membership, Lloyd’s Chairman John Nelson may have sent a hawkish signal to producers on the Continent whose … Continue reading On Leaving Europe
On Insurance Fat Cats
Eye-watering as ever the recent annual survey of executive remuneration revealed, in the words of its publisher Insurance Insider, that our leaders “are some of the best rewarded captains of industry, beating averages within commercial banking and almost on par with the petroleum industry”. Indeed the top fifty highest paid insurance bosses in 2013 pulled in an average of $10m each. Most of the fat-cats … Continue reading On Insurance Fat Cats
On thanking the Regulator…really
Since the financial crisis in 2008, the insurance industry has seemed transfixed, even paralysed at times by regulation-anxiety. The dash to introduce Solvency II; an expensive sprint to a finish-line, ultimately stretched by the EU rule makers, led to some rancorous exchanges between insurance leaders and those setting the policy as the full implications of compliance emerged. The chatter now in the market is about … Continue reading On thanking the Regulator…really
Roger Bickmore 