Probitas 1492 has been writing in Canada nearly since its inception in 2016, but the time had come for the Lloyd’s syndicate to strengthen its presence in the local market.
Robbin Botnick (pictured) has been tapped to lead the launch of Probitas’ Toronto service company, expanding its footprint in what she calls a “unique marketplace”.
Probitas, which offers property, construction, general liability, and financial lines insurance and reinsurance, intends to target Canada’s small- to mid-market businesses.
“We’re going to focus on underwriting to our strengths,” said Botnick.
“We want to continue to support the lines of business and the segments that Probitas has been successful writing in Canada for several years now, but we want to focus on local geography.”
One factor that makes Canada an attractive market is that its economy is predominantly made up of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). Tapping into that space effectively calls for a local touch.
“Small business enterprises continue to make up the largest percentage of the marketplace in Canada, and there continues to be an ongoing opportunity to provide support to small and mid-market businesses,” said Botnick.
“Probitas in Canada is going to work with brokers of all sizes in large urban centres, but we’re also going to focus on those in the smaller, rural centres that perhaps don’t have as much support as they would require today.
“Having people on the ground that truly understand the geography in local communities is going to support the development of the business.”
Probitas wants to partner with brokers who like to innovate solutions for their clients, according to Botnick, who has an extensive history and knowledge of Lloyd’s business and experience on both the broker and MGA sides of the business.
“We are going to look at smaller businesses than traditionally would go into London directly, and we’re going to focus on our underwriting across line and multiline businesses where it makes sense,” said Botnick.
“Canada tends to be a much more of a package insurance market, and we’re going to look to work with brokers who want to support ongoing product innovation and product development.”
However, Botnick also acknowledged numerous challenges to growing the underwriting business in Canada.
For one, macro pressures like lower consumer spending, inflation, and high interest rates are expected to persist this year. Extreme weather and natural catastrophe threats also strongly impacted Canada’s insurance market last year.
High competition in the mid-market and SME space is also a challenge but not a huge concern, according to Botnick.
“While we benefit from the alignment and support that we get from our London team both through data analytics insights, there are lots of MGAs, Lloyd’s coverholders, and new entrants,” Botnick said.
“But the reality is Canada is a vast country with 23,000 insurance brokers and agents. There’s a lot of opportunity to go out, create relationships, and align with those brokers.”
Botnick is also embracing the challenge of attracting talent into the global organization.
“It’s very competitive, especially in the big centres. Though Probitas is a known entity and a big company, I think the opportunity to work with a very entrepreneurial business that is fully supported but still can function as a startup will be attractive to underwriters,” she said. “This is a unique opportunity for us to attract the right people.”
London-headquartered Probitas is focused on international high-growth markets, offering coverage and capacity on a primary and excess basis and has in-house claims expertise.
Establishing a service company in Canada is part of Probitas’ broader push to reach critical geographies and enhance its service to local broker partners.
In 2018, it launched its Latin American presence, becoming the first syndicate to join Lloyd’s representative office in Mexico. It has also built distribution and underwriting platforms in Brussels (EEA), Australia, and Manchester (UK regional).
“We recognize that Canada is a unique marketplace, and we want to make sure that we can support brokers of all sizes in the commercial SME and mid-market space,” she said.
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