Lloyd’s Focused On The Australian Insurance Market
When we think of insurance, often the first name that comes to peoples’ minds is Lloyd’s of London – the world’s specialist insurance and reinsurance market – which brings together an outstanding concentration of underwriting expertise and talent and is often the first to insure emerging, unusual and complex risks.
Aspect UW Managing Director, Mike Wallis, recently attended the annual Lloyd’s Coverholder Conference and discovered just how important the Australian market is to the world’s most important name in insurance. Lloyd’s insures the majority of FTSE 100 and Dow Jones industrial average companies.
Aspect UW has a proud association with Lloyd’s, having become a Coverholder in 2018. Mike Wallis was a London-based broker at Lloyd’s from 2002-05 and has been a Named Underwriter on numerous Lloyd’s Binding Authorities continuously since his return to Australia in 2006. He has negotiated some of the largest Group Personal Accident & Sickness contracts in both the Australian market and the Lloyd’s Accident & Health market, via his long-term and extensive broker and underwriter relationships and his product expertise.
Australia continues to be an important market for Lloyd’s, as Mike discovered when he attended the conference in February. Lloyd’s has been a powerful force in the Australian insurance industry for more many years. In 2016, Australian businesses contributed more than AUS $2bn in annual premiums to the Lloyd’s market.
Among other valuable insights:
- Lloyd’s holds 6.5 per cent of the General Insurance (non-Life) market in Australia, making it the fifth largest insurer in the country.
- Despite our relatively small population, the significant premium volume here makes Australia the fourth largest market territory for Lloyd’s.
- The Australian market is a profitable territory for Lloyd’s, meaning that we will continue to benefit from exposure to the world’s largest and most important insurer.
- Lloyd’s is planning for £7 billion ($14 billion) worth of global business growth in 2020. Given the importance of Australia to Lloyd’s overall market position, it is reasonable to expect a significant proportion of that growth to occur here.
- Lloyd’s Coverholders represent a third of Lloyd’s global income and are seen as the ‘jewel in the Lloyd’s crown’ because they are unique to Lloyd’s.
As a Lloyd’s Coverholder and wholesale broker, Aspect has access to Lloyd’s unrivalled concentration of insurance capital and expertise in a market that develops the essential, complex and critical insurance needed to underwrite human progress and keep businesses functioning.
It also means that Aspect UW has access to the services, analysis, research and product innovation and design of the world’s most trusted insurance name, as well as the reputational and financial security that Aspect UW, its brokers and clients can all enjoy. Aspect UW is perfectly placed to access tailored and well-priced insurance solutions from this diverse, progressive and innovative market – the attributes that set Lloyd’s apart from many of the domestic insurance markets across the globe
Mike Wallis
Mike has over 25 years experience, having spent his first seven years working as a Broker at Jardine Lloyd Thomson in Melbourne and in 2002 was transferred to JLT’s Accident and Health Department in London. For four years (2002 – 2005) Mike was a specialist A&H Lloyd’s Broker and during this time developed excellent relationships with the Lloyd’s A&H underwriting fraternity. In 2006 he returned to Australia in a senior broking position with overall responsibility for Placement Strategy, including the implementation of underwriting facilities and the various authorities granted by Lloyd’s. Mike was the underwriter at two specialist Underwriting Agencies prior to founding Aspect Underwriting in 2016.
