Ecclesia Re brings in former Securis exec Mattias Eng, as casualty ILS focus gains pace

Ecclesia Re, the specialist reinsurance broking arm of Ecclesia Group, has brought in additional insurance-linked securities (ILS) expertise in the shape of former Securis executive Mattias Eng, as it accelerates its focus on bringing casualty ILS solutions to European cedants.

Eng has joined Ecclesia Re as a Capital Markets Consultant, bringing his expertise in developing new capital markets backed solutions for insurers seeking access to diversified and efficient reinsurance capacity from institutional investor sources.

Specifically, Eng will focus on expanding the casualty business line at Ecclesia Re, especially in the area of bringing new capacity to clients from specialist funds and alternative capital providers.

With casualty ILS solutions such as sidecars seeing a wave of interest and growth lately, Ecclesia Re has been building up its specialism and focus in this area, seeing an opportunity in the European market to design and deliver capital market solutions to support cedant’s casualty reinsurance needs.

In a recent whitepaper, Jens Ziser, Managing Director at Ecclesia Re explained that, “Our aim is to help European cedants navigate selectively available capacity with structures that meet today’s governance and transparency expectations.”

The reinsurance broker has now brought in Mattias Eng to assist with this casualty ILS push, with his background having seen him focus on developing capital markets insurance and reinsurance solutions.

Most recently, Eng worked at Securis Investment Partners, the specialist ILS fund manager that is now part of Twelve Securis.

Eng joined Securis in 2020 in a new Insurance Solutions Group, which saw the ILS manager looking to expand the range of insurance-linked securities (ILS) investment options available to it especially in non-life risks, where the company believed deploying life ILS financing type structures may have been appropriate for certain classes of insurance business.

That has now come to pass in the casualty space, where a differentiated approach (compared to the typical ILS arrangements we see) has come to the fore, blending ILS structuring with asset management and being more akin to some of the life and annuity sidecar strategies we’ve seen.

Prior to his time at Securis, Eng worked in capital markets roles at J.P. Morgan, BNP Paribas, Royal Bank of Scotland and Friends Provident, all in positions that involved largely life insurance focused securitisation and structured risk transfer arrangements.

Eng brings meaningful experience to Ecclesia Re at a time where the capital markets are beginning to transform casualty risks and with Europe so far largely untapped for casualty ILS structures, it will be interesting to watch the broker’s progress.

Also read: Casualty ILS to become core component of capacity strategy: Ecclesia Re’s Ziser.