.jpg)
In the face of some rocky waters, the world’s fourth largest P&I club, The Standard Club, has decided to withdraw from underwriting at Lloyd’s beginning from 2019.
The club, which began underwriting marine and energy risks with Syndicate 1884 back in 2015, pointed to “current overcapacity and a weak pricing environment” for its decision – noting that Lloyd’s has a “challenging environment for it to develop a profitable underwriting business with sufficient scale.”
According to chief executive Jeremy Grose, the club is now looking at alternative approaches to bring additional insurance covers to its members – possibly including establishing an underwriting agency.
“Conditions in the Lloyd’s market are far more challenging today than they were when we planned the launch of the syndicate and it is the right decision to pull out now and allocate the capital to other initiatives,” he said.
“Lloyd’s represented a small part of our overall growth strategy. The plan is delivering in line with expectations. We are diversifying our business to provide an even stronger and more stable business to meet our members’ core P&I insurance needs.”
Corresponding with the Club’s announcement, Charles Taylor Managing Agency also released a statement following the decision to place Syndicate 1884, which was managed by the business, into run-off.
It outlined that the syndicate will write business until the end of the year and that Charles Taylor would be “focused on developing its business as a provider of syndicate management and operations.”
“We are very confident in the prospects for Charles Taylor Managing Agency, both as a manager of live and run-off syndicates,” said Barnabas Hurst-Bannister, chairman of Charles Taylor Managing Agency. “We established the managing agency as a third-party syndicate manager in 2015 and developed up-to-the-minute systems and processes, designed specifically for that purpose.”
