The latest from the LMA for you;
The Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA) has recently published a new report, Lead and Follow in the Lloyd’s and London Market: Beyond the Binary, exploring the market’s future outlook of the role of the lead underwriter.
Based on 41 market interviews and a survey of 60 insurers and brokers, the report finds that the binary view of ‘lead’ and ‘follow’ is not granular enough to reflect market reality. Instead, the report introduces a suggested six‑segment strategic categorisation, ranging from Full‑Service Leads to Capacity Followers, designed to help firms navigate their position on the lead-follow spectrum. It also creates a new definition of leadership and describes the characteristics of ‘true leadership’ for the market to consider.
The report highlights the risks of failing to identify a disconnect between an underwriting team’s perception of its position on the leadership spectrum and the reality. While respondents claimed to lead approximately 40% of their GWP, the analysis suggests that a substantial proportion of this is not ‘true leadership’ but technical or administrative lead positions.
The report highlights:
- Definitions of a leader – clients place importance on pricing, technical underwriting and claims expertise, autonomy, flexibility and speed of response. The era of the ‘big name’ underwriter appears to be in decline as true leadership is now increasingly perceived as an institution’s underwriting and claims expertise, rather than that of individuals.
- Followers could delegate some underwriting processes to leaders – respondents highlighted claims handling, claims adjudication and contract certainty checking as the most likely tasks to be delegated to the leader. Appetite for shifting more underwriting, pricing and client engagement activities to leaders is there, but the current regulatory landscape makes this challenging. While interviewees expressed appetite to delegate regulatory and compliance tasks to leaders, doing so would require regulatory changes.
- Number of leaders to consolidate in the long term – 65% of those surveyed expect the number of lead underwriters to consolidate over a five-to-ten-year period, citing the growing bifurcation between lead and follow positions and the resulting impact on expense ratios. As leading demands higher operating expenses and deeper investment, the associated costs risk creating a barrier that may deter challengers from growing into true leaders. Carrier M&A is expected to continue to consolidate the number of organisations able to operate in that capacity.
- Role of consortia to grow through soft market – as the market cycle softens, consortia business is expected to continue its current upward trajectory, having grown from 4% to 7% of Lloyd’s GWP between 2017 and 2024. The topic of consortia continues to be divisive, however, with some brokers reporting efficiency-related benefits and others arguing that consortium leaders are playing a distribution role. Some respondents also believe that digital placement of follow lines will make consortia redundant.
Sheila Cameron, Chief Executive Officer at the LMA, said: “The Lloyd’s and London market’s ability to collaborate and help our clients to solve the most complex of risks is what makes our marketplace unique.
“Clients want a leader with experienced underwriters and claims teams who understand their business and their risks. They want a leader who has the depth of experience to offer cost-appropriate solutions when they encounter issues or are presented with new opportunities. The most sophisticated insurers are deliberate about their lead proposition, aligning investments to capabilities they believe will allow them to differentiate.
“The aim of this report is to provide an objective examination of the diversifying roles across the lead-follow spectrum, and to provide underwriting teams with the clarity and language they need to have honest conversations about where they are today – and where they want to be tomorrow.”
INDUSTRY COMMENT
Matthew Yeldham, Chief Underwriting Officer, AEGIS London, said:
“The LMA’s report is a timely contribution to an important debate about how underwriting in the Lloyd’s and London market is evolving.
“The London Market’s standing as a global centre for insuring complex risk depends on its ability to combine underwriting excellence with thoughtful innovation. For leading syndicates, the responsibility is to continue setting the standard for true lead underwriting, while embracing new ways of trading that support – rather than dilute – that expertise. Getting the balance right will be critical to the market’s success over the next decade.
“Being a lead underwriter is not simply about position on the slip; it demands deep engagement, a clear understanding of the client’s business and objectives, and the ability to apply expertise and judgement to complex risks. That depth of insight and leadership is what leading Lloyd’s syndicates are renowned for and preserving that standard is critical to London’s continued global relevance.
“At the same time, we cannot ignore that the market is evolving. Risk is increasingly accessed through a broader mix of lead, follow and digital channels, and the challenge for market participants is to meet the changing needs of the market while remaining true to their deep underwriting expertise.”
Tom Squires, Head of Distribution and Digital Trading, AEGIS London, added:
“As distribution models evolve, the follow market is becoming more sophisticated and more digitally enabled. For the market as a whole, this creates an opportunity to deploy capacity more efficiently, provided it is done in a way that remains anchored to underwriting discipline.
“At AEGIS London, we see this as a question of proportionate balance: maintaining underwriting-led leadership in complex classes, while investing in scalable, technology-enabled routes to market such as our Portfolio Solutions team, the OPAL quote-and-bind platform and digital follow initiatives. These developments reflect how the market is changing and how it can continue to serve brokers and clients effectively.”
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