Arcus Syndicate 1856 plan approved for 2019, to expand in property insurance

Arcus Syndicate 1856 at Lloyd’s of London, which is backed by funds under the management of the Credit Suisse insurance and reinsurance linked investment strategies team, has had its business plan for 2019 approved by Lloyd’s of London.

The syndicate, which underwrites solely on behalf of funds under the management of the Credit Suisse Insurance-Linked Strategies (ILS) division, has a stamp capacity of £104.2 million in 2018. But that looks likely to increase due to the appetite to expand the syndicates underwriting in property insurance risks.

The 2019 business plan sees Arcus 1856 continues its focus across all of its current business lines within the Syndicate’s property and specialty insurance and reinsurance portfolio.

In addition to the continuity across its offering, there will also be an increase in capacity for property insurance underwriting at Lloyd’s, the syndicate said.

Adrian Gfeller, managing director, Arcus 1856, commented on the approval of the plan, “We are delighted to have received approval for our 2019 business plan. Arcus 1856 operates a well-diversified portfolio of business and in 2019 our aim will be to ensure the ongoing profitability of that portfolio by maintaining strict underwriting discipline across all lines of business.”

The Arcus Syndicate 1856 has been steadily expanding since its launch for the 2016 underwriting year.

At launch the syndicate was underwriting a diversified portfolio of international business, largely focused on reinsurance lines, including property reinsurance and the specialty lines of marine, energy, cyber and space and aviation.

Property insurance was added in 2017, when Arcus 1856 underwrote one binder during the year, to drive an expansion that would allow capacity to be more directly applied to large property risks.

For 2019 the syndicate team will expand that property insurance underwriting, which could be a good move given some traditionally backed syndicates at Lloyd’s have been pulling back on this line as one area they are finding harder to make margin in.