Beginning his insurance career as a regional underwriter in Manchester, Phil McDowell (pictured) knew it was time to move on when he wanted more variety in the types of risks he worked on as an underwriter. His appetite for greater variety found a natural home in the multinational space, where after eight years with Allianz he joined RSA’s global network business which he now supports as strategic relationship manager.
With partners in more than 150 territories, McDowell’s role sees him work with RSA and Intact offices around the world to help them do more multinational business and to leverage its global network.
“Every day there’s a different challenge,” he said. “If you’re operating in the UK regional market, for instance, you’re dealing with one market, one regulator and one set of rules. We’ve got more than 130 partners in over 150 territories and each one comes with its own complex risks. So when you need insurance that covers multiple territories, you’re trying to make sure that what you’re doing is compliant in each of those.
“If there’s a change in law or regulation, you need to understand what impact that’s going to have on you, your customers and your brokers. So, we need to be constantly horizon-scanning the risk environment to see what’s happening. We need to determine what impact that will have on our customers and how we can manage that while making sure we don’t expose ourselves to that risk. Everything’s different, every day, but that’s what keeps it interesting.”
McDowell noted that navigating such a complex risk environment requires regular engagement with each of RSA/Intact’s network partners across each of its territories. These relationships enable the insurer to obtain better and more timely insights into what’s happening around the world, he said, and to stay one step ahead of emerging risks. This is supported by its utilisation and monitoring of an international insurance database which provides information into what’s happening with regards to changes in laws and regulation – as well as insights from the international insurance press.
“We try to be as proactive as possible,” he said. “That’s our culture, one of no surprises. And we’re always trying to think about the impact of any such changes and costs to us and to our customers. For instance, the cost-of-living is going up in the UK so what’s the impact on our pricing? We need to make sure that the risk premium being allocated is equitable and in line with the market standards of all our partners working in their local markets.”
For McDowell and his team, supporting the growth ambitions of RSA’s Global Network Partners is top of the agenda right now, and it’s a drive supported by its parent company Intact. Until the Intact acquisition in 2021, he said, RSA was potentially up for sale and getting smaller as a result of that. However, since Intact has come in, there has been a significant shift of focus back to the business and its growth potential.
“Where we sit in the global network is as part of Intact’s global specialty business,” he said. “And we’ve got growth ambitions to go from £5 billion to £10 billion by 2030. That may happen through acquisition but also through leveraging the new opportunities for organic growth that can be found. In our role, we’re beyond the main classes of business that we traditionally write. We specialise in property-casualty, marine, construction and engineering – and we’re now putting a lot of work into our Profin team.”
While Profin has long been part of the RSA proposition, he said, the insurer is looking to ramp up awareness of its product suite and the opportunities it offers to its international audience. Understanding that not everybody in the regions is aware of RSA being a global business was a key factor behind its recent broker ‘roadshow’ that saw key members of the Profin team go out across the UK to bolster recognition of RSA’s international offering.
“We’re on a journey,” he said. “In the last few months, we’ve probably enhanced or added 14 or 15 different countries that now have additional products or capabilities that we didn’t have access to before. Part of that has been our work with Profin, which received great feedback from the market.
“And part of that was to support a large liability account we wrote in the London market in January, where there were 90 territories and where, aside from general liability, we wrote professional indemnity alongside that. That was a real driver for us, to make sure we were able to solve the solutions for that customer and reinforce our relationship with the broker.”
RSA/Intact’s Global Network is in a unique position in that it has access to insurance companies and brokers all over the world, he said, and the connecting thread between all its relationships across the insurance ecosystem is an emphasis on collaboration.
The success of RSA’s model and the opportunity it brings for proactive and collaborative knowledge and risk sharing is best evidenced by the strength of its strategic network partners. These 12 partners are other insurance companies spread around the globe that pay an annual fee to access RSA/Intact’s Global Network so that they are enabled as multinational players. These internationally based insurers recognise that RSA has been doing this for over 30 years, he said, and these relationships affirm the strength of its product offering and the global network team which supports that.
Never one to rest on its laurels, the RSA/Intact Global Network team is expanding and looking to ensure that all of the products that they write can be supported by its Network Partners. Between 10 and 20 years ago, McDowell said, insurance companies around the world were more open to fronting multinational business and more willing to invest in this potential revenue stream as they appreciated it as an effective way to diversify their business. However, now there is a great deal more regulation and internal compliance to contend with, making it harder to attract new fronting partners.
The “carrot” to attract new partners is fronting income and so RSA is actively working to fully understand the business case of each potential partnership. For instance, he said, if RSA doesn’t have a footprint in every territory required by a customer they will do due diligence on those that are missing, to determine its potential premium and policy volume and where value can be added for brokers and customers alike. Having established that business case, RSA will determine what already exists in that market, and where new partnerships may need to be established to help facilitate that risk.
“Right now, we’re looking at that across financial lines but also A&H written in the UK, cyber and life sciences,” he said. “So, we’re looking at a number of different areas for growth. And each is on a different stage of its journey but it’s all working towards that ultimate goal of providing more opportunities for our customers supported by the Global Network.”
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