Aviva eyes Lloyd’s specialty lines growth: Washington

By Rebecca Delaney

June 16 - (The Insurer) - Aviva is eyeing “quite significant” growth across specialty lines on its Lloyd’s platform Probitas, Matt Washington told The Insurer, heralding the Corporation’s new leadership as a continuation of the symbiotic relationships between the Lloyd’s and company markets.

Aviva announced its re-entry into the Lloyd’s market in February 2024 with a deal to acquire managing agent Probitas, which closed in July last year.

This marked a key step in previous Lloyd’s CEO John Neal’s push to bring international (re)insurers into One Lime Street, dubbed his “big game hunting” strategy.

“We were quite flattered to be considered as big game. I know that they were pleased that we joined the market, but we see it as quite a symbiotic relationship,” said Washington, managing director, global corporate and specialty at Aviva.

“There's a lot that we can bring to the Lloyd's market. We bring a wealth of claims experience, underwriting experience and risk engineering capabilities. Similarly, our acquisition of Probitas brings in some great skill sets into our business.”

Turning to the Corporation’s new CEO Patrick Tiernan, who assumed the role earlier this month, Washington was optimistic that this symbiotic relationship will continue.

“We know Patrick well, he had been a previous MD within Aviva, and he knows our business well from our conversations when we were going to do a new Lloyd's entry startup, so he understands us and our aspirations,” he said.

These aspirations include expanding Aviva’s specialty lines business across both product and geography.

In November 2024, Probitas began underwriting five new classes of business (marine, construction, renewable energy, contingency and M&A), with political violence and terrorism, and accident and health added in February.

“In short, we have some really ambitious plans for our global corporate and specialty business, bringing those two businesses together and looking at how to use those really strong skill sets and capabilities across both the company and the syndicate platforms,” said Washington.

“We think there's a really good opportunity to continue to expand a number of product offerings. Because of Lloyd's wider licensing capabilities, we're able to access more overseas risks that we weren't able to access so readily through the company platform.”

Areas of focus for future geographic expansion include continental Europe and Australia, as well as consolidating the Canadian business.

“There's no particular areas where I'm saying we're absolutely throttling back. There's a number of areas that we can help diversify that book – both product and geography are the two areas we're looking to grow.”

Probitas Syndicate 1492 reported a net combined operating ratio of 77.9% for 2024, its fourth consecutive sub-80% result.

The unit also helped to drive 15% growth in Aviva’s overall commercial lines gross written premium for the year, with a group undiscounted combined operating ratio of 96.6%.

Washington underlined that keeping a disciplined combined ratio remains a priority over top-line targets.

“We're not actively pushing teams and setting the top line ambitions. It's about underwriting sustainably,” he said.

“I'm not setting people that because I think you end up shooting yourself in the foot a little bit if you chase. There is plentiful capacity in the market in a number of lines at the moment, so for me it's about how we best support our customers rather than chasing the top line.”