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INDUSTRY ICON
STRENGTH AND STABILITY As head of the London & International Insurance Brokers’ Association, Christopher Croft leads an organization that is poised to influence the global centre of insurance in the midst of seismic, market-moving change
WHEN HE came into his new role as chief executive of the London & International Insurance Brokers’ Association [LIIBA] nearly three years ago, Christopher Croft had big shoes to fill – his predecessor held the job for 36 years. Determined to represent the voice of the broker in market discussions, as well as conversations with governments and regulators, Croft has presided over a gradual evolution in the association during a period that is proving to be tumultuous. The litany of challenges facing the global center of insurance today includes rumblings of trouble at Lloyd’s of London and the fate of Brexit, among other transformations that are affecting the business operations of insurers around the world. “I never saw, in my coming into LIIBA, that there was a requirement for revolution, but I think we have evolved LIIBA over the three years into a more prominent organization, particularly in its relationship with government,” Croft says, highlighting Brexit as a major focus for the association. “There’s nothing like a crisis of uncertainty to make people value their trade associations.” Croft’s previous positions primed him to face a room full of government representatives and regulators. Before taking the helm at LIIBA, he worked for the London Market Group [LMG], a central body that repre-
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sents the city’s specialist commercial insurance and reinsurance broking and underwriting communities. One of his key projects at LMG was the first London Matters report, released in 2014, which collected data on London’s position in the global insurance industry. Prior to that, Croft spent a decade in finan-
PPL; in his first year at LIIBA, the association signed a contract with a software supplier and secured the commitment of board members to contribute financially to the project. “PPL adoption is absolutely something that we view as a success at the moment,” Croft says. “We now have 60 brokers signed up, [from] 28
“I think we have evolved LIIBA over the three years into a more prominent organization, particularly in its relationship with government. There’s nothing like a crisis of uncertainty to make people value their trade associations” cial services regulation; he began his career by working on the privatization of rail systems – a job that gave him a solid foundation for working with government stakeholders.
An achievement 30 years in the making Looking back on his career, a key milestone for Croft was the launch of the Placing Platform Limited [PPL], which gave brokers and insurers the power to quote, negotiate, bind and endorse business digitally. While at LMG, Croft filled out the form to incorporate
at the beginning of [2018], so we’ve more than doubled the number on the platform.” After three decades of discussions about implementing something like this, Croft is elated to finally have implemented the technology that will open new doors for brokers and the insurance market. “Lots of people talk lyrically about artificial intelligence and Big Data and how these things may come and revolutionize insurance,” he says. “I’m sure there is the potential for that to happen, but that could only happen if
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