research papers with our community to try and help educate and provide them with supporting information to back up the decision-making processes they’re making around the risks they take on. “Equally, broker education and market education is something we’re very keen on pushing and promoting.” Mackinnon continues: “We’re looking to try and work with some of the broker groups to provide Lloyd’s introduction 101-type training seminars for new and upcoming staff. “We have a whole global development centre program running from London, which we’re internationalising, where we’re looking to take young up-and-comers and give them the opportunity to immerse themselves in Lloyd’s. At the moment, we do that through programs in Singapore and London, but we’d very much like to start developing those programs here in Australia for local brokers as well.” There are also some Underwriting Agencies Council-led events on the calendar. “They’re going to be hosting a couple of training and educational sessions for young up-and-coming brokers here in the new Lloyd’s office.”
Argenta’s first Australian home Joining Lloyd’s on O’Connell Street from the outset is Argenta Underwriting Australia (AUA), a new branch of Argenta Holdings’ Singapore-based subsidiary, Argenta Underwriting Asia Pte Ltd. Argenta’s tenancy in the new Lloyd’s hub marks the first time Argenta has had a physical presence in Australia. Argenta expects its Sydney presence will facilitate better service of existing partners and the opportunity to expand its client base in the region by offering local access to the full range of products available from Argenta’s Lloyd’s Syndicate 2121. So, while AUA will have a focus on property, other lines offered by Syndicate 2121 include energy, marine, power and utility, treaty reinsurance, terrorism and accident and health. “We’re not new to Australia, but the business has been coming over to London,” says Ian Maguire, active underwriter for Syndicate 2121. “Co-location … is perfect for us because sometimes what can kill the growth is the cost – taking an office space yourself and having to have reception and all of those services. “Going co-location helps us enormously.”
As Tim Higgins, underwriting director at AUA, tells Insurance Business, the territory on which AUA will focus isn’t just limited to our shores. “We’re looking at New Zealand as well, and the Pacific Islands,” he says.
be successful as a Lloyd’s market.” He says that AUA will differentiate itself through service. “We’ll … offer that one-on-one service to the coverholders and agencies. We talk to some of them, and they give us feedback that their
“We’ve got the product, the people, the location [and] we operate under excellent security. So it gives us that opportunity to be successful as a Lloyd’s market” Tim Higgins, Argenta Underwriting Australia “It’s geographically quite a big space.” So what are the biggest challenges Argenta expects in physically bringing the brand into the local marketplace? “I think, for me, it’s probably getting the momentum going,” says Maguire. “It’s getting people to start thinking of us in the first instance because they’ve got other choices … Once we start that, I don’t see any big challenges because it’s similar business to what we’re used to and what we write in London. We’re just doing it locally.” Higgins says, “We’ve got a small team of people already and we’ll grow that as needed … We’ve got the product, the people, the location [and] we operate under excellent security. So it gives us that opportunity to
security doesn’t talk to them. They talk to them once a year. So they’re saying, ‘We don’t really have any service’.” Over the coming year, AUA’s focus will be on establishing its name in Australia. “A lot of the coverholders know us from London,” Maguire says. “They visit London and we’ve got the relationships. But it’s just establishing the brand in the local market and growing into a larger business.” Higgins expects other service companies will join Argenta, Talbot and Ironshore in the co-located Sydney hub. “That will happen, no doubt,” he says. “We’ve got three, but three might be seven by next year. And co-location … , it works.”
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