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McGill and Partners has hired Peter Chesman (pictured) as partner for its UK structured solutions team.

According to a statement from the specialist re/insurance broker, Chesman’s role will focus on alternative risk financing and in particular captives and multi-year structures, and he will work with large complex clients and captives across multiple lines of insurance.

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Prior to the transaction, Gallagher held 30% of the brokerage. It is headquartered in Mumbai, with branches in Delhi, Bangalore, and Kolkata.

The joint venture was formed in 2019, when Gallagher acquired a minority stake in Edelweiss’ broking business, expanding its access to international markets. This marked Gallagher’s first foray into India, which is among the fastest growing insurance markets globally.

According to Gallagher and Edelweiss, the acquisition will integrate EGIBL more deeply with Gallagher’s global operations, and help scale up the business significantly. It will also give clients access to a larger suite of insurance products and services.

“We are delighted that Edelweiss’s insurance broking business will become fully owned by Gallagher once we have the necessary regulatory approval,” said Vyvienne Wade, Gallagher’s chairperson of global broking in Europe, Middle East, & Asia. “Since we started our partnership with Edelweiss in 2019 we have enjoyed an excellent relationship with the team under the leadership of Vinay Sohani. We view India as a key and strategic market for the insurance industry and for Gallagher, given its scale and growth potential, and we see many interesting opportunities for further development of the business.”

Varun Bajpai, president of Edelweiss Group, added: “We are excited to commence the next phase of our business journey along with Gallagher. Insurance broking is increasingly becoming a global play and we look forward to drawing on Gallagher’s strategic insights and leveraging its expertise across products and technology to capitalize on the growing opportunity in the space.”

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Read more: BAE Systems global director on the five trends shaping the evolution of insurance fraud

So, in keeping with that old adage about honey and vinegar, Harris first addressed what insurance businesses tend to do well in this area.

“Data sharing is a key aspect,” he said, “and insurance has got so much to teach the rest of financial services. They’re lightyears ahead of banking – if you look at banking, for example, we talk to banks, and they can’t even share information between their own branches in different countries. So, insurance has really blazed the trail when it comes to data sharing.”

This is particularly relevant considering the rising attention being paid to a public-private partnership solution to fight financial crime, he said. The reality is that an individual insurer is never going to be able to solve this issue in a silo, but rather just put a sticking-plaster on the problem. The only way to truly offset widescale financial crime is by establishing an accessible and sizeable pool of data and centralising it to the benefit of the wider profession.

“When it comes to pricing, I think insurers offer very good value,” he said. “And they’ve got fantastic processes in place for understanding what their risks are, and for balancing premiums against their expected payouts. It’s a very stable industry and you don’t see too many insurers going under, so I think it’s really well-managed from that perspective.”

An area that is more of a mixed bag for the sector is the challenge of compliance, which is an area in which BAE Systems handles a variety of clients. Whether it’s to do with money-laundering, KYC or watchlists for terrorist funding, insurers tend to do an OK job, he said, but this is going to be an area where they will soon be feeling a lot more pressure. That pressure, in turn, will inevitably fall on the brokers as well, as due diligence around the customer onboarding process will be emphasised – not just from a fraud perspective, which implies loss, but also from a compliance perspective.

“So we’ve got a number of customers on the compliance side, and I think that’s going to escalate and potentially move into the broker market as well,” he said. “That’s mainly on the life side, for now, because that’s where you have the biggest premiums, and the biggest potential payouts. It’s less on the P&C side, but we do have a number of our life insurers asking us more about putting some checks in place to make sure that they are meeting the regulations around financial crime compliance as a whole.”

Read more: What are the new insurance fraud trends to be aware of?

Where insurers tend to be quite poor is when it comes to offering additional services to their customers, Harris said, as all too often it’s the case that they sign up a customer and then don’t contact them again until renewal time. Insurers are making inroads with this, but there’s still a lot more they can do – especially when their customer interaction is compared to other industries, such as the banking sector.

“Their knowledge of their customer on the back of that tends to be really poor,” he said. “They have so little information about their customer where various other financial institutions are always trying to engage and interact with their customers in order to learn more about that customer behaviour. That’s so important for fraud because you can only identify the bad guys, if you know what a good guy looks like. When you know what a good profile is, you can spot the outliers. And that’s not just from a fraud perspective, but also from a risk-analysis, and cost-analysis, and an underwriting perspective as well.”

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Moody, who is based in London, will report to Dean Klisura, president, Guy Carpenter and assume responsibility for Guy Carpenter’s UK property and casualty business. Moody has held his current position of CEO, Marsh Specialty, UK & Ireland since 2018 and, during his 22-year tenure with Marsh, has developed and led several successful strategic growth initiatives in the UK financial lines and specialty divisions.

Meanwhile, Dominic Samengo-Turner (pictured below) has been appointed CEO, Marsh Specialty, UK & Ireland, effective September 01, subject to regulatory approval.

Samengo-Turner will be based in London and report to Chris Lay, CEO, Marsh, UK & Ireland, and Lucy Clarke, president of Marsh Specialty and Global Placement. He is currently the global head of facultative reinsurance at Guy Carpenter, having previously served as head of Marsh Specialty, Asia, following Marsh’s acquisition of JLT. With over 35 years’ experience in global and specialty markets, Samengo-Turner is an industry veteran who also spent 23 years at Willis Towers Watson in several leadership roles before joining JLT in 2015.

Toby Wemyss has been appointed global head of facultative reinsurance, Guy Carpenter.

Reporting to Moody, Wemyss is expected to join in the fourth quarter of 2021 and will be based in London. He joins Guy Carpenter from Willis Towers Watson, where he had served as global head of facultative for the previous four years. Wemyss also previously held the role of regional CEO of Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa and CEO of global markets, international for Willis Towers Watson.

Commenting on the senior leadership shakeup, Klisura said the company was delighted that Moody and Wemyss are joining. He noted that both have extensive track records in leading successful teams, focused on delivering client-focused solutions.

“In these key leadership positions, their experience and market insight will be invaluable to Guy Carpenter’s continued growth,” he said. “I would also like to thank Dominic for his service and wish him every success at Marsh.”

Clarke added that Samengo-Turner is an “exceptional leader” who will bring his extensive experience in the global specialty markets to Marsh Specialty. Under his guidance, she said, the business will continue to pursue transformational solutions for its clients in a challenging market.

“These changes reflect the deep bench of talent we have available across Marsh McLennan and our ability to place strong leaders from within as well as attract industry-leading talent to the firm,” she said. “On behalf of all of us, I would like to thank Paul for his outstanding contribution to Marsh Specialty, and wish him every success in his new role at Guy Carpenter.”

Meanwhile, Lay added: “I am looking forward to working with Dominic to bring the deep specialty capabilities that make us well-positioned to address the future risks our clients face. Dominic’s experience will be invaluable as we develop the solutions that enable us to meet our clients’ ever-changing needs and unlock their growth possibilities. I would like to thank Paul for his leadership at Marsh, and welcome our continued collaboration in his new role.”

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Over the coming months Blanc will work closely with current CII president and CEO of Aon UK Ltd, Julie Page, before taking over as president and chair of the President’s Forum on January 01, 2022. The CII President’s Forum was created earlier in 2021 to explore new and emerging risks and how the insurance profession can address unmet consumer needs.

Commenting on the news, Blanc said: “The pandemic has shone a light on how important it is to have insurance solutions that can keep businesses going, so I look forward to becoming president of the CII in 2022 and continuing the professional body’s amazing work to examine ways to close the gap between what consumers expect insurance services to entail and the reality.

“As a profession it is vital that we get to grips with the cause of the expectation gap and how to better educate consumers around coverage. Having cover in place is essential if our customers are to do and achieve more in the years to come.”

In additional news from the CII’s AGM today, Russell Higginbotham was appointed to the role of deputy president. Higginbotham was appointed as Swiss Re’s CEO Reinsurance Asia and regional president Asia on July 08, 2019 and, from his Singapore base, oversees over 2,000 staff across 11 Asian cities. 

 Sian Fisher, CEO of the Chartered Insurance Institute, noted: “I would like to thank Julie for her excellent, continuing work as president during these challenging times and for her focus on establishing the President’s Forum and ways our profession can address unmet needs.

“I look forward to working closely with Peter as our new president in 2022 and look forward to working with him on how our profession can adapt, evolve and innovate our products and services in order to maintain the importance and relevance of insurance to the customers it serves.”

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AXA is combining its businesses in Asia and Africa, with AXA Asia chief executive Gordon Watson (pictured) taking on an expanded remit.

Previously, the AXA Asia business included the markets of Hong Kong, mainland China, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. This will now expand to include the African and Middle East markets of Algeria, Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon, Côte d’Ivoire, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria and Senegal. Additional Asian markets, namely India, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, will also be added under the umbrella, which will be known as AXA Asia & Africa.

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Peak Reinsurance Company AG, has appointed Karlheinz Render (pictured) as senior vice president, Europe, effective August 01.

According to a statement from the European subsidiary of Hong Kong-based reinsurer Peak Re, it hired Render to develop its market position in Europe, namely in the property & casualty markets of the DACH region (Austria, Germany and Switzerland).

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In 2020, MetLife became the first US insurer to sign the United Nations Women’s Empowerment Principles, which have guided the company’s strategies to close gender gaps in the areas of leadership, workplace, marketplace and community. As of the end of 2020, women represented 52% of MetLife’s workforce, 33% of its board of directors, 30% of its executive group, and 42% of its managers.

“As a global insurer and purpose-driven company, we strive to create a more confident and sustainable future for all of our stakeholders,” said Michel Khalaf, president and CEO of MetLife. “Building on our 153-year legacy of creating financial security, we are strengthening our commitments to the environment and climate, equity and inclusivity, health and wellbeing, and economic growth for disadvantaged communities.”

The report also covers the company’s efforts to create positive change in the more than 40 markets where it operates. Highlights from 2020 include:

• Through premium credits and contributions, MetLife and MetLife Foundation gave more than $250 million in relief to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19.
• MetLife and MetLife Investment Management invested more than $659.6 billion in total assets under management for policyholders and clients.
• MetLife Foundation committed an additional $5 million over three years to promote Black educational and career opportunities, Black business ownership, and racial justice initiatives, supplementing the existing $10 million in annual contributions to support racial equity and diverse communities.
• The company also launched EXCELERATE, a talent stewardship program aimed at accelerating midlevel Black and Latino employees into officer-level roles.
• As part of 11 new environmental goals, the company committed to reducing location-based greenhouse gas emissions by an additional 30% between 2019 and 2030 and originating $20 billion in new green investments by 2030.
• MetLife’s operations have been carbon-neutral since 2016 and its green investments currently exceed $28.7 billion.
• The company launched a sustainable financing framework to further align its investment and business priorities and issued a $750 million green funding agreement, which secured the US insurance sector’s first green funding agreement-backed note.

“We believe sustainability must be central to our business strategy and a guiding force behind every aspect of our operations,” said Jon Richter, chief sustainability officer at MetLife. “The full scope of our people, products and services, investments, and community efforts help us serve as a force for good in the world.”

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Bristol-headquartered Castlemead Insurance Brokers Ltd has joined Brokerbility.

“We are delighted to welcome Castlemead to our exclusive group,” said Brokerbility managing director Ian Stutz (pictured). “Them joining continues our clear vision and commitment to supporting independent broking in the UK insurance market.”

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After over three decades with Allianz, Holger Schaefer is making the switch to international insurance broker Howden.

Coming onboard in September, Schaefer will serve as Howden’s chief executive in Germany. His imminent arrival follows recent CEO appointments for Switzerland and Europe. It will also mark Schaefer’s return to his home country, after previously working in Hong Kong, Australia, the US, and the UK.

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