Arch Capital

Bazan Group’s refinery near Haifa was badly damaged by Iranian bombardment in June.

Arch will continue to provide long-term capacity for the MGA.

Cat portfolios generally grew, but casualty approaches varied.

The Bermudian said its pursuit of SMEs through M&A will provide sustainable improvements to its bottom line.

The loss ratio rose 1.9 points to 53.1%, while the expense ratio ticked up 0.6 points to 28.1%.

Ondine Bourrut Lacouture succeeds Simon Williams, who had been in the role since 2019.

The unit will include both ocean and inland marine coverage.

There has been significant talent displacement in the specialty reinsurance market.

Ed Short was previously VP, digital partners, at Arch.

William Soares moves from casualty and specialty CUO to president.

Sources said MarshBerry was retained earlier this year to run the sale.

Specialty reinsurance has experienced high competition for talent.

The days of 30%+ growth are probably behind the firm, he said.

Overall, the company’s underwriting income fell 43% to $417mn in the first quarter.

James Barrett has been interim head of cyber since October 2024.

Chapman exited from Scor following a 13-year tenure with the carrier.

Fast Track is led by QBE and backed by Canopius, Arch and Beazley.

Deteriorating CoRs, GWP growth and fears over wildfire impacts were common themes.

The company, meanwhile, is bullish on E&S US casualty.

The firm pegged industry losses at $35bn-$45bn.

Michael O’Neill has been promoted to onshore power and renewables underwriting manager.

Former Chaucer natural resources head James Brown joins as an advisor.

UK regional division CEO Steve Bashford has retired.

Robin Hamilton has been appointed head of energy and marine liability.

Outgoing chief Søren Scheuer will become a non-executive director.

Tim Watson most recently served as a senior credit and political risk underwriter.

The underwriter worked for Markel for a decade.

Jelle Ouwehand joined Arch from Marsh, where he was a senior terrorism, PV and war broker.

Both appointments are effective immediately.

Arch is assuming an industry loss related to Helene in the $12bn-$14bn range.

The reinsurance CoR rose 12.3 pts to 92.3% following $364mn of cat losses in the quarter.

Breese joined Arch in 2019, having previously served at cyber security firm Corax.

Arch announced the retirement of CEO Marc Grandisson on Monday, with immediate effect.

The executive has been group CUO since 2021.

Munns succeeds Michael Chu who rejoins Arch Insurance North America as SVP, P&C programs.

The business is aiming to launch at 1 January, focusing on non-cat delegated authority business.

Everest Re bucked a more general trend to keep cat exposure stable.

Penberthy joined Arch in 2022 and became CFO of the UK operations in December 2023.

The slowdown was based on a conviction of “higher likelihood of frequency events” this year.

The reinsurance segment LR reflected 10 points of cat activity, up YoY from 6.7.

Both parties expect to close the transaction on 1 August 2024.

Arch, Axa XL, Beazley, Chubb, Hiscox, Howden, MS Amlin and TMK are participating.

The underwriting head has worked in the London market for 25 years.

Roberto Tous joins from Zurich, where he was head of financial lines for the Benelux.

Constantine 'Dinos' Iordanou served as CEO at Arch Capital Group for 17 years.

A standalone syndicate could offer capital, trading, and licensing advantages.

Motwani will be responsible for overseeing key UK functions.

There was no material development on long-tail casualty lines across all years, he said.

The reinsurance segment's loss ratio reflected 3 points for the event.

Kirsten Valder has been with Arch for 10 years and before then was a partner at Kennedys Law.

The deal includes an LPT of ~$2bn loss reserves for 2016-2023 years with Arch Re.

Doppstadt and Paglia have served on the board for 14 and 10 years, respectively.

Joe Morrello joined the firm in 2022 after serving as E&S property head at Beazley.

Vanessa Hardy Pickering and Lester Pun have also been promoted.

Tysers has been regulatory principal for the MGA since its 2018 launch.

Slipstream will be available to marine, cargo and logistics UK clients.

CEO Grandisson described Arch as "bullish" in its prospects for 2024.

During the quarter, it booked $137mn in cat losses versus $34mn a year ago.

Earlier in the process, sources linked Sentry Insurance with a bid for the E&S insurer.

The segment has bounced back from its mid-2022 nadir, but its current zenith is not that much to shout home about.

An escalation of conflict at the end of last week is expected to put significant upwards pressure on marine war rates.

The deal follows this publication’s report that the Bank of America-run sale process of Castel was drawing robust interest.

Ratings could be lowered by one notch depending on regulatory restrictions on cash flow from Bermuda operating entities to non-operating holding companies, the ratings agency said.

The consideration is expected to be around $140mn plus a $25mn dividend.

The five-person underwriting team will be led by Ian Lewis, who has been named head of intangible assets.

The executive noted “increasing evidence [that] casualty rates widely underpriced and oversold during the last soft market need to increase.”

The reinsurance segment reported a 39.7-point improvement in its CoR to 80% in Q3 2023, along with 30.4% top-line growth to $2.1bn.

Pierro will be responsible for establishing operations in France and growing the company’s European cyber insurance portfolio.

Jose Carlos Jiménez Fernández and Rafael Ortiz Losada have joined the company as senior underwriters.

The executive will oversee all aspects of managing direct insurance operations at the business.

The executive has spent 20 years at the company and five at the helm.

Arch Re CEO Maamoun Rajeh says renewals need to be more like performance reviews: telegraphed with no surprises, as there is no upside to late games of “chicken”.

In addition, Arch Re global CUO Pierre Jal moved to Zurich to take over as Europe CUO, while president Matthew Dragonetti expanded his scope to lead client-centric initiatives.

CFO Morin said Arch was able to deploy more capacity, resulting in a significant premium growth for property lines.

Sources suggest that, based on a multiple of 15x-17x Ebitda, the business could be valued at £300mn-£375mn.

The expansion came in tandem with a 3.5-point improvement in the segment’s combined ratio, to 81.9%.

The executive, based in Morristown, New Jersey, will be responsible for the company’s US reinsurance operations.

Blois will be responsible for managing the carrier's miscellaneous PI book of business.

Under terms of the partnership, Arch Capital has acquired a minority stake in the Bermuda-based MGA.

The underwriter will be reunited with former colleague and current head of terrorism, political violence and war, Andy Bauckham.

He will be responsible for supporting the Bermudian’s expansion in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Most forecasters predict below-average activity in the region – but opposing weather phenomena mean uncertainty is higher than usual.

Early private deals have provided far more stability in this year’s renewal than last.

The pair will be responsible for managing underwriting activity across their respective lines.

Arch plans to “take advantage” of these favorable market conditions, and may expand PML to 10%-12% of shareholders’ equity by July 1, from the current 8.1%.

The company also reported top-line growth of 25.8%, with gross premiums written during the quarter totaling $4.8bn.

Following the retirement of Mark Watters, Jason Page will be responsible for managing marine and hull underwriting activities the carrier’s worldwide portfolio.

The Bermudian increased its cat load to $100mn-120mn in Q1 2023, compared to around $80mn a quarter for 2022.

Pre-tax current accident year net cat losses for the insurance and reinsurance segments totaled $34.6mn for the quarter, nearly half of the $72.3mn figure posted in Q4 2021.

The company has also expanded the regional scope of its underwriting managers as it looks to support growth.

Enstar is conducting due diligence around taking on the rest of the Argo back book.

Brian First was previously CUO of programs, property and specialty at Arch.

In his new position, the executive will report to Arch’s head of cyber and technology E&O, Marcus Breese.

In a Q3 earnings call today, Arch CEO Marc Grandisson also told investors that events like Hurricane Ian “almost always result in opportunities”.

The cat and expense developments offset favorable reserve developments during the quarter, as the Bermudian released $178mn.

Arch Capital has pegged its estimated Q3 pre-tax net catastrophe losses at $530mn-$560mn, impacted by Hurricane Ian, as well as other events like US convective storms, Typhoon Nanmadol and hailstorms in France.

Ratings agencies suggest that carriers must do better on controlling volatility – but diverging risk appetites give the lie to the idea that the industry is walking away from risk.

Arch Capital CEO Marc Grandisson told analysts on an investor call today that the industry has started incorporating higher inflation into models.

The Bermudian also reported margin improvements and top line acceleration despite a decline in mortgage gross written premium.

David Longley will be responsible for further developing and expanding Arch’s portfolio.

Andrew Bauckham also served as chair of the Lloyd’s Market Association’s terrorism and PV panel.

Premia and Arch are pursuing AmTrust for costs relating to an RITC deal struck as part of the Canopius merger.

Arch launched a cargo and logistics division in March 2021, one of several carriers bringing new capacity to the market.

Plus this week’s Q1 results and all the top news of the week.

CEO Marc Grandisson said most of Arch’s exposure to the war comes via Lloyd's aviation, marine war businesses.

The firm recorded a third consecutive margin improvement in the first quarter of 2022 as its core loss ratio narrowed by 2.7 points to 49.3%.

Based in London, the new senior underwriter will report to Austen Barnes and is responsible for delivering insurance solutions across multiple geographies and clients.

A New Jersey judge writes a scathing decision criticizing hospitality firms for attempting to claim physical damage from virus and misinterpreting policy language.

Linda Daly will join the company’s D&O division led by Michael Chu.

The executive joined the company in 2010.

The CEO also said that price increases in property cat were insufficient for the company to allocate more capital to the line.

The (re)insurer’s GWP surged 32%, helped by strong gains in both its insurance and reinsurance divisions.

Chicago-based Evertas will write crypto-asset policies on behalf of Arch and aims to expand relationships with other carriers.

The appointment comes after Sarah McGurk resigned to join Aviva.

Lisa Packard, a long-time Arch facultative executive, has also been named chief strategy officer for the US reinsurance division.

Liz Cunningham, Watford’s chief risk officer, has been named its new CEO, as the company said that ratings agency AM Best had affirmed the outlook on its A- FSR to "stable".

Underwriting profits soared by 66% to $174mn, with a $234mn underwriting gain in mortgage outweighing losses in insurance and reinsurance.

The coverholder has also expanded its product offering and now underwrites marina business.

The (re)insurer pegged industry losses from Ida at $30bn and increased its share buyback program to $1.5bn.

The cat market has a problem with sustained underperformance which, particularly following the ESG Awakening, could attract negative boardroom attention.

Ebong has worked at Apple and Facebook, while Mallesch was P&C CFO for Nationwide.

The insurance division added almost $300mn in premium in the quarter, while volumes in reinsurance were higher by $360mn.

The investment expert has worked for Amundi, Standish Mellon, and Gannett, Welsh & Kotler.

Arch CEO Marc Grandisson has said he is “not losing sleep” over the prospect of new (re)insurance startups snuffing out the hard market.

Arch’s combined ratio improved by 1.2 points to 89.2% and company weathered winter storms to produce an underwriting profit just shy of $200mn.

The carrier joins peers including Tokio Marine Kiln, MS Amlin and Brit.

Around 80% of the losses are expected from the reinsurance business.

The acquisition adds to Arch’s mortgage insurance operations in Bermuda, Europe and the US.

IGI is set to launch into the contingency market and has appointed underwriter Emily Clapham to lead the entry into the class, Insurance Insider can reveal.

The newcomer most recently led Marsh’s property team in Asia, and has also worked at Newline and Cooper Gay.

The CEO said his company would be going on offense to accelerate book value growth while strong market conditions lasted.

The reinsurer completes its EUR453mn deal for 29.5% stake in French trade credit carrier.