Global legacy acquirer, RiverStone International, is eager to be even more proactive around deal origination, and is also focused on continuing to build on brand and legacy market recognition while taking advantage of new technologies to support its growth ambitions, according to Andrew Creed, Group President and Group Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
At the 2026 IRLA conference in Brighton in early May, Reinsurance News spoke with Creed about the three core focus areas for RiverStone International over the next three to five years.
“One, we absolutely want to be more proactive around deal origination,” said Creed. “That was something that our new CEO, Paul Brockman and I were very clear on when Paul joined us, being more structured and disciplined in going out there and trying to build that pipeline.”
He went on to explain that this includes visiting counterparties, capital providers, regulators, and others across multiple different jurisdictions.
“This ensures that we’re continuing to educate, we’re continuing to get our message out there, but also so importantly we’re continuing to listen to what our clients actually want and need. If we don’t engage comprehensively with our markets and potential customers, then it’s always going to be trickier for us to design products and come up with bespoke solutions that actively support needs. So, that proactivity in deal origination is something that we want to be much more focused on with this becoming a core part of what we do, rather than our default being reactive to the opportunities with which we are presented,” said Creed.
The second key focus area for the firm in the months and years ahead is to continue building on both brand and legacy market recognition. Creed explained that while it is true that the respect for the retrospective space continues to grow, it’s important not to be complacent about where it is.
“I think there’s always more we can do in getting out there and talking through who we are, how we’re resilient, why we’re not here just to clean up discontinued and problematic business, and how we can provide clear capital and operational relief solutions across the full insurance and reinsurance spectrum. Building that brand is super important to creating a highly sustainable business and to elevating our market,” he said.
The third and perhaps broadest focus for RiverStone concerns technology. The company has its own in-house claims management system that is now being upgraded entirely in order to take advantage of newer tools and newer systems.
Creed explained: “We have a strong focus on making sure that we’re identifying areas that have really clear value use cases for technology, and how we can implement those automation and AI products into what we do on a day to day basis, to drive operational efficiency and help us deliver more value, both for us and our clients.
“That does mean embedding automation and AI solutions into what we do and I think this is crucial for a number of reasons. Firstly, operational efficiency does matter when scaling our business and to how we remain differentiated. Managing costs with efficiency through systems is going to be critical to that. Secondly, being able to manage and analyse vast data sources to get comfortable with underwriting and pricing discipline continues to be key, particularly in an environment where you’re not taking claims control, for example. In that case, you need a higher degree of comfort that the reserves you’re assuming are fully understood, and the use of data and analytics supported by AI and automation become a really key component of that.
“This is also important from an ongoing business evolution, business maturity and talent perspective as well, particularly in terms of continuing to attracting highly skilled people into our business.
“It’s important that this market is continuing to evolve its technology and data stances in the right way, engaging with things that do have clear value cases and use cases, and that continues to enhance resilience. Resilience is key across the business, and cyber resilience, in particular, must remain one of the more important focus areas for us.”
As RiverStone International intensifies its focus on these three core areas, Creed is optimistic of the firm being ready and able to capitalise on market opportunities, with Lloyd’s and the US highlighted.
“The last wave of activity followed the Decile 10 and bottom quartile reviews — it was more about operational restructuring and capital recycling into the hard market. Since then, activity has been more of a background trickle.
However, the amount of tail liability that has built up on syndicate balance sheets since the last wave of RITCs will, I’m pretty sure, drive more activity outside of that.
“I do think that we will see more opportunities coming out of Lloyd’s over the next four or five years. The Lloyd’s market has been relatively quiet since 2023, with only a few deals traded through since then. This more limited activity does demonstrate that live carriers and capital providers at Lloyd’s are not using the RITC market systemically at the moment. The last flow of deals we saw was principally driven off the back of the Decile 10 review and, ultimately, the bottom quartile review with some incremental activity around operational restructuring and capital recycling to support hard market growth. As the live market has hardened, it’s been a bit more of a trickle in the background.
“There’s still effort to try and change the dynamic there. But notwithstanding the last three or four years, the amount of tail liability that’s now built up in live syndicate balance sheets since the last wave of RITCs, I’m pretty sure will drive more activity outside of that,” said Creed.
For Creed, the US remains a massive untapped market for RiverStone and the broader legacy market. But while there’s a huge volume of liabilities in the country, it’s the region Creed feels still requires the most education.
“It’s easy to think about the region as a single, holistic market, but unfortunately it’s not as straightforward as that. More education remains key, both across regulators and across carriers and counterparties. Rating agencies are getting more familiar with the legacy market as well, which is good, and that helps, particularly in the US. But there is still more do. Ultimately, the US is an area where I see significant opportunity, and one where I expect us to be active,” he said.
