The Hartford is expanding its reach in the international marketplace, making critical investments in technology and talent to take the organization to the next level.
Carl Bach (pictured), CEO of international at The Hartford and head of The Hartford Syndicate 1221 at Lloyd’s of London, sat down with Insurance Business to discuss how the priority of building out an international presence has been top of mind since the acquisition of Navigators two and a half years ago.
“We have been quite internally focused over the last few years, and now we’re looking to expand and grow our international business, which is largely centered around London and our Lloyd’s platform,” he said.
The team has leaned into the Syndicate 1221 platform as it provides a licensing network that gives the organization access to a pool of premium that has not been tapped into before.
“We have confidence in Lloyd’s’ ability to modernize the market, so we are also embracing technological investments that will help us capitalize on trading and claims payments,” Bach explained. “Over time we expect the expense of operating withing Lloyd’s to decrease as well.”
A strategic imperative for The Hartford is using the Lloyd’s company market for marine and energy products, as it provides more capacity for international business lines.
The scope of the organization’s international business encompasses the UK, but The Hartford also has operations that are growing in Asia and Latin America.
“From an Asia perspective, we’re focused on Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan to a lesser extent,” he mentioned. “Miami facilitates our Latin business; we don’t have anyone located in the Latin American countries physically, but we’re trading across most territories.”
The Hartford is not trying to be all things to everyone, according to Bach. From a product standpoint the company will be focusing on sectors such as marine, energy, environmental liability, general liability, and political risks.
The political risk division encompasses terrorism, trade credit, aviation war and more, which is particularly relevant given the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.
Read next: Political risk rising: Is your board aware?
“We entered the aviation war market in October of last year, so we have some exposure to what is going on with aircrafts in the Ukraine as they are already on our books,” he added.
Political risk coverage has been top of mind for many global businesses, and insurers should be setting an appropriate risk appetite as well as providing additional resources to bolster the underwriting process.
“We have dedicated economic research analysts that help support the underwriting process of these products and provide in-depth credit analysis,” said Bach. “We launched the international suite of products in March 2020, which was interesting timing as it was right before the pandemic, but we were able to enter these markets in a challenging time without any legacy exposure.”
For 2022-2023 The Hartford hopes to continue building its market share within Lloyd’s, transform operating models, and invest in data analytics to connect to the wider market.
