Renewals and market conditions

• Through 1/1 and into Q1 2020 renewals, there was a sustained drive to improve market-wide underwriting performance with a focus on rate increase and profitability rather than top-line growth. 
• Driven on by a number of larger marine liability market losses in 2019, underwriters in general were seeking rate rises of between 5 and 10% on loss free business. 
• There is also an increased requirement for sign-off by senior management at some syndicates and actuarial functions have an increasingly prominent role in both renewals and new business.

Market capacity

Capacity within the Marine Liability market remains ample, though Q1 of 2020 has seen a number of syndicate changes: 

New entrant

Convex - December 2019

New international specialty insurer and reinsurer, Convex Group Ltd, began writing marine liability business in London.  Convex have received an A.M. Best rating of A- (Excellent) and have a linesize of up to USD100m to deploy.

Withdrawn from writing marine classes

Neon – January 2020

Ohio-based parent firm American Financial Group (AFG) revealed its decision to exit the Lloyd’s marketplace this year, having initiated run-off actions for Neon syndicate.

Aspen – February 2020

Aspen announced they are ceasing to write international marine and energy liability at Lloyd’s. They will continue writing other existing lines of business, including upstream energy and the carrier's US book will be unaffected. This follows their decision in 2018 to stop writing Aviation, Marine Hull, Cargo and Professional Indemnity.

Operational change

Sompo International – April 2020

Sompo International announced consolidation of its London presence into one company market platform. From January 2021, it will no longer write business from Endurance at Lloyd’s or Syndicate 5151. All renewals and new business written in London will be from Endurance Worldwide Insurance Limited.