Marsh’s Bowring Supports Clients with Innovative Risk Transfer Products

Bowring, Marsh’s International Specialist Broker, announced new efforts to make its placement leadership meet the requirements of its clients by creating “five bespoke risk transfer products covering property, casualty and terrorism risks.”

The bulletin described each product as incorporating “unique elements which address the particular needs of Marsh’s clients, while sharing one important characteristic: they have all been developed to draw upon the strength of syndicated placements, thereby enabling risk to be distributed across a broader number of carriers, in response to client demand.”

As an example Marsh cited its Bowring Marsh North America Property Facility, which “provides $25 million of primary capacity for All Risk North America/Worldwide Property business. Participating syndicates will agree to be bound to the two leaders, Ace Global Markets and Catlin.

“Similarly, the Bowring Marsh Worldwide Terrorism Facility provides up to $250 million property damage and business interruption coverage following an act of terrorism and/or sabotage, and is underwritten by 13 Lloyd’s syndicates.

Mark Gregory, CEO of Bowring Marsh, commented: “Our clients increasingly want to have their risks spread across a broader base of carriers. By generating products that syndicate a number of underwriters’ capacities under one block, Bowring Marsh has taken the lead in meeting this demand.

“Further, these products offer unique features. The Casualty facility, for example, provides a new option for lead capacity excess of underlying retentions, whilst under the Property and Terrorism facilities, certain underwriter experts in their field have agreed to authorise the leading underwriters to quote and bind participations on their behalf. This is highly unusual on programmes of the size and complexity that these facilities address.”

Andrew Chester, Head of Bowring Marsh, London added: “These products have been designed to mitigate during extreme market volatility. They draw upon the strengths inherent in syndication, whilst providing our clients with an efficient and prompt underwriting decision. The Lloyd’s and London company market have once again been innovative in the face of an exceptionally challenging business environment to work with us to develop products with substantial capacity which provide much needed new options to existing placement solutions.”

Marsh described the five products and their particular features as follows:
North American Property Facility – This facility provides $25 million primary capacity and is broadly based – only mining and processing of natural resources are excluded. The placement is 100 percent Lloyd’s security with participating syndicates agreeing to be bound by the two leaders, Ace Global Markets and Catlin. Furthermore, there is an additional $25 million of open market capacity available which can dovetail with our North American Excess Property Facility, below, providing an overall $500 million limit per risk.

North American Excess Property Facility – This facility makes available, quickly and efficiently, a large amount of capacity. Its scope and the speed of underwriting make this an effective and attractive option for our clients. The facility responds within 48 hours and the majority of markets agree to be bound on a non-catastrophic basis by the leaders, Catlin Syndicate 2003 and Reith Syndicate 1414.

Worldwide Power Facility – This facility can provide up to $135 million capacity as part of a $500 million limit. Designed specifically to accept power and utility business worldwide on All Risks of physical loss or damage, including boiler and machinery, it is intended for primary and quota share placements. The placement uses 100 percent Lloyd’s security and can respond within 48 hours of receiving a completed submission.

Worldwide Terrorism Facility – This facility provides up to $250 million of property damage and business interruption coverage following an act of terrorism and/or sabotage for assets located anywhere in the world. It is flexible, competitively priced, can be quickly activated and is underwritten by 13 Lloyd’s syndicates. It can be used to provide primary, excess or captive retention terrorism coverage for periods up to 18 months.

Worldwide Casualty Facility – This facility, a unique syndication of three markets, provides a new option for lead capacity excess of underlying amounts. With a limit up to $50 million, it is extremely flexible; although designed to be a lead layer facility, it will also act as an excess layer vehicle, thus providing a $50 million option anywhere in a client’s programme. All market forms are considered and the three markets will sign the same policy form and agree on a ‘contract certain’ basis at inception.

Source: Marsh – www.mmc.com or www.marsh.com

Topics Catastrophe Excess Surplus Underwriting Property Lloyd's