The Sompo delegation at this year’s Airmic conference in Liverpool share their reflections on a busy few days.
More than 30 people represented Sompo at this year’s Airmic conference, spanning property and casualty, cyber, directors and officers, marine, multinational, claims and risk control, as well as senior leadership.
The conference programme was dominated by discussions of geopolitics, climate change and technology and digitisation risks, and Bob Thaker, UK CEO singled out “navigating political volatility” as the issue that is top of mind for risk managers.
“Clients are watching geopolitical developments and the resulting macro-economic uncertainty closely,” he said. “They want to understand what it means for the trading environment, their businesses and the risk landscape, and how they can mitigate disruption to their operations and any impact on profitability.
“They are looking for more support and guidance from insurers, something that is reflected in the fact that we hosted double the amount of client conversations at this year’s Airmic compared to 2024.”
Picking up on this theme, Stef Green, Head of Client Management, believes clients are intrigued by the Sompo proposition. “Risk managers understand that we are here for the long-term – and are actively seeking us out to find out more. They see the range of great people we have hired and how we have expanded our offering, and they want to explore our appetite and capabilities. Having our UK senior leadership here is a real differentiator, clients are keen to meet directly with decision makers and see that the authority needed to write their risk is sitting in front of them.”
Is the insurance industry doing enough to attract the right talent?
Attracting the best talent was the theme of the opening panel of the conference, moderated by Mike Reid, Head of P&C UK, and featuring Sompo’s own UK Client Relationship Manager, Abbie Conneely, as well as Jon McNeill, Programme Leader for Glasgow Caledonian University’s MSc Risk Management course and Joe Boughtflower, Head of Insurance and Claims at Network Rail.
The issue of insurance’s image problem was a key part of the panel discussion. Abbie picked up on the need to “bridge the perception gap between what people think we do and what we actually do”, raising the importance of new approaches like TikTok to get those messages across.
Joe suggested that the key to attracting more talent could be to spotlight more regional roles. Mike agreed, adding that Sompo’s own recent phase of UK expansion has involved adding 60 team members outside of London.
Mike also called for continued investment in training of entry-level staff, highlighting the long-term impacts of de-prioritising investment in this area. “During the financial crisis, the market stopped investing in graduates and training and as a result we are now struggling as an industry significantly to hire people with 10-15 years of experience.”
Waking up to the emerging per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) risks, regulations and mitigation strategies
Sompo’s second Airmic panel session was moderated by Laura Llewellyn Gray, Head of UK Property and featured Cristian Crozier, Head of Casualty, UK Commercial Lines, as well as Dr Henriette Heine, Senior Claims Manager at Munich Re and Natasha Lioubimova, Legal Director for Clyde & Co.
The panel discussed the extent of the problems surrounding PFAS – a group of up to 14,000 forever chemicals, never breaking down and accumulating in the environment and human tissue.
Dr Henriette Heine explained that “people are more aware of the health and environmental issues around these chemicals”, citing heightened media attention and a broader scientific interest in their impacts on human health.
Natasha Lioubimova highlighted that research has only been conducted into “a handful” of the estimated 14,000 chemicals in the group, so there is as yet no evidence that the remainder cause similar harmful effects.
Christian Crozier emphasised that insurers face difficulties in managing PFAS-related risks due to the complexity of causation, while the broad exposure across various industries means that the claims landscape is complex.
A partnership approach to risk and claims
A recurring theme at Airmic across all risks was the need for a partnership approach between insurers and clients in the areas of claims and risk management.
Jeremy Hewitt, Head of Third-Party Claims, highlighted that Sompo’s claims offering is not simply a back-office function, but a differentiated proposition. “We are not here just for when a loss occurs,” he said. “We are deeply integrated with clients throughout the year, working in tandem on horizon scanning and to help them to develop their in-house capabilities. They really value a closer working relationship with decision makers and the benefits this brings in terms of speed of decision making.”
It is only fitting for a risk management event, that the final word goes to Richard Wilkinson, Head of Risk Control Services, UK. “Risk managers are looking at partnering with insurers on a long-term basis to navigate the opportunities and challenges around technology and innovation. We are seeing a huge uptick in our client technology ecosystem based around Foresee, a proprietary global platform that provides a 360° view of clients’ risks that dovetails with their risk control programme and connected devices.”
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About Sompo
Sompo Holdings Ltd. is a global specialty provider of property and casualty insurance and reinsurance, headquartered in Bermuda. Through its operating subsidiaries, Sompo writes agriculture, professional lines, property, marine, energy, casualty and other specialty lines of insurance and catastrophe, property, casualty, professional lines, weather risk and specialty lines of reinsurance. Sompo companies are wholly owned subsidiaries of Sompo Holdings, Inc., whose core business encompasses one of the largest property and casualty insurance groups in the Japanese domestic market. We maintain excellent financial strength as evidenced by the ratings of A+ (Superior) from A.M. Best (XV size category) and A+ (Strong) from Standard and Poor’s on our principal operating subsidiaries. Sompo’s headquarters are located at Waterloo House, 100 Pitts Bay Road, Pembroke HM 08, Bermuda and its mailing address is Sompo, Suite No. 784, No. 48 Par-la-Ville Road, Hamilton HM 11, Bermuda.
For more information about Sompo, please visit www.sompo-intl.com.