News Releases

Atrium gauges the market

Various Atrium Underwriters have travelled to Leading Industry conferences to meet clients and peers and get a hands on feel for the direction their respective markets are heading, a brief summary of each is provided below

IUMI Conference - Hong Kong - attended by Tom Gault – Head of Energy

The event in its 140^th year drew over 600 marine insurance and reinsurance professionals, including representatives from Atrium London and Singapore.

Hull:

A somewhat downbeat note was sounded, with the global hull market in technical loss for a staggering 18^th consecutive year.  The UK represents the largest single market by some margin, enjoying 22% market share.  A declining frequency of losses was noted, though offset by a rise in severity.

Upstream Energy:

In the Upstream Energy sector, London enjoys 72½% market share of the world premium.   The unusually low incidence of claims in recent years was highlighted, though warnings were sounded over the considerable volatility of losses inherent in the sector.  This is cause for concern given the rapidly falling rating environment currently being witnessed.

Cyber

The world fleet is considered to be growing in vulnerability to cyber attack, as newer vessels have an increasing degree of integration between navigation and communications systems.  Floating drilling / production units in the upstream energy sector represent the greatest risk due to their typically high degree of systems integration and high value.

Professional Liability Conference Update

Lloyd’s Meet the Markets - Chicago – This is the second event after the inaugural Boston one that Lloyd’s America have organised to promote the market. Matt Wilshaw attended on behalf of the syndicate to promote our Professional Liability capabilities. The event was well attended by local retailers, wholesalers and MGA’s some of whom had little knowledge of Atrium or Lloyd’s generally. The audience was also treated to a presentation by Inga Beal on what the future may hold for the marketplace.

TARGET Markets - Scottsdale – This was the first year we had been able to attend this conference exclusively for program business. Over 800 program business professionals gathered in Scottsdale and enjoyed a keynote speech from former FBI Director Robert Mueller. Wes Butcher and Matt Wilshaw attended on behalf of the Professional Liability team with the objective of promoting our expertise and long history in the program space for boutique professional liability classes. The conference itself is not as hectic as some of the larger more general conferences and the team had some interesting meetings with both existing and new program managers in the market.

PLUS - Las Vegas – Now in its 26^th year the PLUS (Professional Liability Underwriting Society) Annual conference remains the biggest gathering of Professional Liability Insurance experts with over 2000 attending from around the globe. PLUS members Wes Butcher and Matt Wilshaw attended alongside Claims Manager Neiha Chohan on behalf of Atrium. An incredibly busy 3 days ensued and the team was extremely happy with the quality of the meetings attended. Market conditions remain tough but have stabilised in recent times and new opportunities are being created by our excellent distribution force of Agents and Brokers.

P&C Conference Update

NAPSLO - This E&S event continues to grow with increasing number of Brokers, Agents and carriers attending, this year nearly 4,000 made the trip from around the US and a big contingent from London, Atrium have been attending for over 20 years and the programme is one of meetings and agent reviews, with so many in attendance the itinerary is hectic and many meetings have to be brief and to the point.  

Whilst the market talks the rates down our network of coverholders continue to push rates where they can and our proactive style continues to encourage growth in both AUGold and traditional programmes/relationships. AUGold clients  continue to speak highly about the service centre in San Francisco which continues to have a positive impact on business flow.