Growing demand for reinsurance capacity in credit, political risk and surety business has prompted BPL to launch a dedicated reinsurance division, bringing in former Guy Carpenter executives Alistair McVeigh (pictured on the left) and Louis Harvey (pictured on the right) to lead the operation.
The new business, BPL Re, will provide reinsurance expertise and solutions for carrier relationships across credit, political risks and surety lines. The launch comes during a period of sustained activity in the credit and political risk insurance (CPRI) market, where demand from banks and corporates has continued to support growth while attracting additional underwriting and reinsurance capacity.
According to Howden Re, the CPRI market recorded another year of growth and underwriting performance in 2025, with increased capacity largely matching demand from banks and corporates.
The broker said incumbents increased line sizes and new market entrants added capacity, helping absorb demand even though some areas continued to face supply constraints.
Alistair McVeigh, head of reinsurance for credit, political risks and surety at BPL Re, said economic, geopolitical and regulatory developments are influencing activity across the market.
“Both financial institution and corporate policyholders are rapidly reshaping the credit, political risks and surety markets, fuelled by an increasingly volatile economic, geopolitical and regulatory environment,” McVeigh said.
“This evolving market complexity and scale is in turn driving growth and competition, extending capacity and capability needs, while attracting capital inflows and new market entrants – as well as propelling more sustained demand from carriers for risk transfer solutions and support from the reinsurance market.”
Howden Re has also reported that banks and corporates continue to use CPRI products for capital relief, balance-sheet protection and risk mitigation, while participation from institutions that historically were not major buyers, including US banks, has increased.
“This is a compelling opportunity and time in the market cycle to build a class-focused, entrepreneurial and genuinely buyer-aligned offering within the specialty reinsurance market,” said Louis Harvey, director of credit, political risks and surety at BPL Re.
McVeigh joins BPL Re from Guy Carpenter, where he served as managing director since 2018. During that time, he oversaw multiple reinsurance treaty relationships involving global and regional credit and political risk insurers, sureties, Lloyd's syndicates and public agency clients.
Prior to Guy Carpenter, he served as UK head of Marsh's credit and political risk insurance practice and previously held senior positions within the credit and political risk teams at Aon and WTW.
Harvey also joins from Guy Carpenter, where he worked from 2019. His reinsurance broking career spans more than 15 years in the credit, political risks and surety sector.
Before joining Guy Carpenter, Harvey spent nine years with Aon's Credit & Financial Risks team in London. Throughout his career, he has structured and placed treaty business for Lloyd's syndicates, company insurers, surety providers and public agencies.
BPL Re will operate as a dedicated division within the BPL Group with its own team, standalone operations and modified infrastructure.
The launch builds on BPL's existing activities in credit specialties. The broker said it has long applied reinsurance techniques and structures when developing solutions for direct insurance clients. Through BPL Re, the company intends to provide additional services for carrier clients while contributing to market capacity and capabilities over the longer term.
Market data points to continued growth in the sector. Howden Re reported that US credit, surety and fidelity business—a commonly used proxy for the global CPRI market—grew 10% during the first half of 2025, compared with 5% growth across major US commercial insurance lines. The segment also recorded a 26% incurred loss ratio versus 57% for major commercial lines, while the three global credit insurers posted an average combined ratio of 75% in 2024.
Recent market surveys also indicate a growing pool of insurers participating in the sector.
WTW's 2025 Credit and Political Risk Insurance Capacity Survey identified 75 CPRI markets, up from 67 a year earlier, while transactional credit capacity continued to increase. The survey also found that theoretical transactional credit capacity exceeded political risk capacity for the first time, reflecting continuing growth in credit-related business.
