HDI Global US has appointed Amy Shinkman (pictured) as credit and political risk US lead, based in Washington DC - a location that signals as clearly as the biography where the role is expected to generate its primary value. For a position centred on working with multilateral organisations, public sector entities and financial institutions alongside broker partners, a DC base rather than a financial centre positions Shinkman closest to the government agency and development finance relationships her EXIM background has built.
Shinkman joins from the Export-Import Bank of the United States, where she served as vice president of export credit insurance, overseeing a portfolio that enables US companies to manage payment risk on international transactions. EXIM is the official US government export credit agency, supporting exporters through insurance, loans and guarantees in global markets. The transition from public sector to private market credit and political risk underwriting is analytically significant: government agency experience brings familiarity with multilateral development bank structures, sovereign and sub-sovereign credit assessment, and relationships with the public sector counterparties that private market underwriters typically develop over much longer timeframes. For HDI Global, which describes credit and political risk as a core segment of its portfolio, that institutional relationship capital is the specific asset the hire adds beyond technical underwriting experience.
Before EXIM, Shinkman held positions with AIG and Atradius in both London and Singapore, giving her a cross-jurisdictional private market foundation alongside the public sector expertise. She brings 25 years of experience in global credit and political risk underwriting across both channels.
The appointment lands in a credit and political risk market under sustained demand pressure. For the third consecutive year, credit and political risk insurable losses linked to geopolitical causes exceeded $250 million, per a Willis political risk survey. US tariff policies introduced in 2025 and 2026 have added further complexity to international trade finance and cross-border investment decisions, raising corporate exposure to non-payment and expropriation risks across supply chains that were already under stress from earlier geopolitical disruption.
Sam Wilkin, director of political risk analytics at Willis, framed the shift precisely: "The political risk map of 2026 is not simply a map of war zones. It is a map of contested systems - trade systems, technology systems, information systems and domestic political systems." That broadening of political risk beyond traditional war zone and expropriation categories is precisely what makes underwriters with sovereign credit and multilateral experience more valuable than those whose exposure is limited to conventional commercial counterparty risk.
Shinkman will lead the development of HDI Global's credit and political risk business in the US, working with multilateral organisations, financial institutions, public sector entities and broker partners to build out the company's underwriting platform.
HDI Global is a corporate and specialty insurer operating as part of the Talanx Group, one of Europe's largest insurance groups, with coverage across property, casualty, liability, financial lines and specialty risks in more than 150 countries. HDI Global US is headquartered in Chicago, where the firm has been building out its specialty lines platform.
