Zurich says the agreement is an “important pillar” of its strategy and will allow it to enter new products and lines of business, focusing primarily on SME and personal lines customers with pleasure craft, marine trades liability, commercial boating insurance and motorcycle and caravan cover.
Chief underwriting officer Sean Walker (pictured) says the agreement has been in the works for several months, and its implementation has largely been unaffected by the ongoing pandemic.
“The agreement reflects that we are still running a business, and opportunity often presents itself in times where you don’t necessarily expect that it would,” Walker told Insurance Business.
“This arrangement aligns strategically where we want to be as a business. Zurich has had a long and deep history in marine insurance globally, and it remains a core strategic focus for us.”
Walker says the agreement will bring benefits to both Zurich and NM Insurance, and will add an SME angle to Zurich’s existing large-scale commercial marine policies. He says the agreement also highlights its focus on the broker sector as a key distribution channel.
“This really compliments what we’ve been doing in the marine space, particularly our focus on cargo and marine liability insurance,” he commented.
“NM Insurance is a very accomplished and longstanding underwriting agency, and has a good track record of success. It was a great opportunity, and from a strategic perspective it fits really nicely with what we’re hoping to achieve – that’s very much focused on commercial intermediated business, generating sustainable and profitable contributions to our organisation, and providing a breadth of capability to our brokers and customers.
“That’s very much exemplified in this particular arrangement.”
