Barbican Insurance Group’s 2019 business plan for its Lloyd’s of London syndicate Barbican 1955 has been approved, but the firm will deploy more capacity into some specialty lines, while withdrawing completely from other areas of business.
Barbican said that Syndicate 1955 will focus on its core markets, with an increased focus on the specialty lines underwriting sector.
As a result, for 2019, specialty lines capacity will contribute almost half of the syndicates overall stamp capacity for 2019, with increased capacity across some speciality niches including cyber, international and U.S. casualty treaty business and healthcare.
At the same time 2019 will see the syndicate withdraw from certain lines of business entirely, with Barbican 1955 not set to have any capacity for property insurance, marine cargo and hull insurance, and PI insurance next year.
Barbican said that its syndicate remains committed to other core areas of the Lloyd’s market, including having increased capacity available for marine reinsurance and energy underwriting in 2019.
Iain Bremner, Managing Director, Barbican Managing Agency Limited, commented on the news, “Barbican fully supports the steps that the market is taking to enhance its overall resilience. As part of this push, our 2019 business plan will see us focus on our core markets and capitalise on our strong standing in the specialty lines sector.
“We have taken some hard decisions, that reflect prevailing market conditions, to ensure the sustainability of our plan. We firmly believe that our business strategy for 2019, and beyond, will provide Barbican with a very strong platform to manage current market conditions effectively and further strengthen our position in our key markets.”
Lloyd’s is taking a strong line with numerous underwriters for 2019, resulting in an expectation that capacity across the marketplace could actually be down compared to this year.
How that affects the influence of Lloyd’s in the global insurance and reinsurance sector remains to be seen, but it is encouraging for the marketplace that key participants such as Barbican remain committed to it.
