Fidelis adds Partnerships focus on cat quota shares, third-party vehicles, MGA

Fidelis Insurance, the specialty insurance and reinsurance firm launched by Richard Brindle, has announced a restructure into four key pillars, one of which is Partnerships and will focus on the firms catastrophe quota shares, MGA and third-party vehicles.

Fidelis launched its first third-party capital vehicle earlier this year, the collateralised reinsurance sidecar Socium Re Ltd., which the re/insurer capitalised with $50 million and said would become a growing source of quota share protection for the firm.

Socium Re Limited was set up to provide collateralised retrocessional capacity support for Fidelis’ reinsurance portfolio and the vehicle entered into a quota share agreement with the firm, incepting as of June 1st 2018.

The restructure has been “designed to deliver enhanced focus and execution” at Fidelis, with Richard Brindle, Chairman and Group CEO, reassuming the additional role of Group Chief Underwriting Officer, to lead underwriting across the four pillars.

The pillars are: Bespoke led by Richard Coulson; Reinsurance led by Rich Holden; Partnerships led by Phil Vandoninck; and Specialty led by Alison Clarke.

The Partnerships pillar is most relevant to the alternative capital space, featuring Fidelis’ catastrophe quota shares, third-party vehicles such as Socium Re, as well as its MGA platform Pine Walk.

The Bespoke segment is set to be core to the firm, focusing on business Fidelis says have higher barriers to entry and exhibit low and stable attritional loss ratios, with customised wordings that closely define exposures that are non-correlating to peak perils and provide high levels of capital efficiency.

Other changes have been made in the senior team and staff at Fidelis, including the departure of Ben Savill who is leaving to pursue other opportunities, the firm said.

Hinal Patel, Group Chief Financial Officer, will take over as Fidelis Insurance Bermuda Limited’s Chief Executive Officer.

Patricia Roufca, Group General Counsel, will take on a new and additional role of Chief Operating Officer.

Richard Brindle commented on the news, “We are always looking to improve our service to our clients and this clear division of our core underwriting business into four pillars will sharpen the focus on our key products and relationships. We have great strength and depth in our executive team, and Patricia will be instrumental in driving the continued search for efficiency in all we do. I am looking forward to an exciting future for Fidelis with strong definition on our sources of profit and differentiation, and with a relentless dedication to our culture of execution.”