Specialty insurance and reinsurance group Lancashire Holdings intends to use Lloyd’s recently established European hub in Brussels to write business after the UK leaves the European Union, according to reports from Reuters.
Speaking in an interview with the publication, Alex Maloney, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Lancashire, said: “We have negotiated with Lloyd’s and we will write businesses that are affected by Brexit through our Lloyd’s platform, through Lloyd’s Brussels … That is a great solution for us.”
By writing through the Brussels unit, Lancashire will be able to ensure continuity of service to its customers in the European Economic Area after Brexit.
Many other re/insurers have chosen to prepare for Brexit by relocating their European headquarters from the UK to new bases in cities such as Brussels, Frankfurt, Paris and Luxembourg, among others.
“Clearly, we do not want to lose our European business but it is not a huge driver,” Maloney explained. “None of us really know what will happen with Brexit and if that changes and we need an office in Europe, we’ll open an office.”
The CEO said that Dublin would be an “obvious option” as a location for Lancashire to open an office, but added that the company had not yet seen any material costs arising from Brexit.
However, the move is expected to be far more challenging for Lloyd’s, with Hayley Spink, Director of Lloyd’s Brexit Programme, saying recently that the marketplace would need to utilise the entire two-year transition period to transfer its affected business over to Lloyd’s Brussels.
Lancashire published its fourth quarter results for 2018 earlier this week, in which it reported a net operating loss of $13.9 million, with high levels of catastrophe losses offset to some extent by the firm’s resilient portfolio and reinsurance programme.
