SiriusPoint chief executive Scott Egan (pictured) has pointed to the company's employee engagement scores, rather than its underwriting numbers, as the clearest explanation for a 44% year-on-year jump in half-year net income, describing staff culture as the business's "secret sauce".
Following the release of SiriusPoint's second-quarter 2026 results, Egan said the Bermuda-headquartered specialty re/insurer's annual employee engagement survey had improved for the third consecutive year, with a score of 83 and a net promoter score (NPS) of plus 40 – a double-digit increase on the previous year, placing the company in the upper quartile on both measures.
"It's one of the most important surveys that we do because it's about our most important asset, which is our people," Egan said.
Egan was explicit that he sees engagement as a driver of financial performance rather than a separate, softer metric.
"I think there's a direct correlation between our staff and how they're feeling and the performance of the company," he said. "For me, that's our secret sauce."
The comment echoes SiriusPoint's emphasis on people over volume-led growth in previous results, where Egan has argued the company would rather shrink than grow at the expense of underwriting discipline.
He also pointed to something he considers harder to fake than a set of results: that feedback from clients and MGA partners mirrors what staff say about the business internally. "One of the biggest pieces of feedback that I'm privileged to get from customers and clients in the marketplace is about our staff and our people," Egan said. "The outside in and the inside in are actually matching."
That alignment, he argued, sits at the centre of SiriusPoint's strategy rather than alongside it. "For me, that's the most important part of our strategy, which is people and making sure that we allow them a place where they can flourish," Egan said.
The financial results Egan credits to that culture were themselves strong. The group's combined ratio came in at 90.1% for the first half of the year, with operating return on equity (ROE) reaching 14.7% – at the top of its stated 12% to 15% target range across the cycle.
"Our combined ratio is 90.1%, our operating ROE is 14.7%, and we set a target of 12 to 15% ROE across the cycle," Egan said. "So in other words, we're right at the top of a range again. Our net income is up 44% year over year. Our book value is up 8% since the end of the year."
Growth was strongest in insurance. Premiums increased 15% in the second quarter and 11% across the first half, while the reinsurance segment shrank 9% as SiriusPoint pulled back from softer property catastrophe and aviation markets.
Egan said the pullback reflected market conditions rather than a change in strategic direction, noting the group had written new structured property business even as it retreated from property catastrophe risk.
"The decisions are getting taken where they really should be, which is on the underwriting front line," he said.
Egan tied the group's managing general agent (MGA) partnerships back to the same people-first argument.
"The MGA relationships are a big part of our distribution and we think that makes us unique in a sense that we really put a lot of effort and thinking into how we make great partners, how we choose the right people to work with," Egan said.
That philosophy has already shown up in practice, including in a multi-year capacity deal with Pen Underwriting covering the UK's social housing sector, agreed in 2024. He said SiriusPoint has invested in data-sharing capabilities to make those relationships more collaborative rather than purely transactional, pointing to a 2025 customer award for its programme and MGA business as external validation.
Looking to the second half of the year, Egan said SiriusPoint is aiming to become a best-in-class business but believes there is still work to do before it can claim that status.
"There's no arrogance here," he said. "We're not arrogant enough to say we will be best in class."
