Fidelis names Mathias to oversee all underwriting

Fidelis Insurance Holdings Limited, a specialty insurance and reinsurance firm launched by Richard Brindle, has named Charles Mathias to the newly created role of group director of underwriting, a position that will give him oversight of all underwriting operations.

As a result, Mathias will also have oversight of the Socium underwriting activities at Fidelis, which is where the firm’s third-party reinsurance capital, sidecar, quota share and investor partnership activities are undertaken.

In the new position, Mathias will ensure that Fidelis’ underwriting data, systems, processes and reporting are of the highest standard and will support the CEO’s of insurance, reinsurance and Socium divisions in delivering Fidelis’ business plans, the company explained.

Mathias was most recently the Group Chief Risk Officer (CRO) at Fidelis.

That role has now been handed to Phillip Murfet, who was previously the carrier’s Group Portfolio Manager and Head of Catastrophe Modelling.

Richard Brindle, chairman and group chief executive officer of Fidelis, commented on the news “The scale and scope of our underwriting capabilities have increased dramatically over the last two years. We now offer over 60 different products working with our clients through brokers and MGAs. So our underwriting controls, systems and data are at the centre of what we do, not just for our own needs but also for those of our Socium partners and other stakeholders.

“We have already developed market leading tools to manage our underwriting and analytics. We now need to move to the next level of automation and reporting. Charlie has great experience in these areas and will ensure we remain efficient and focused.”

Charles Mathias, group director of underwriting, added, “Phil Murfet has already shown real understanding and innovation in his roles in portfolio management and modelling. As such he has worked closely with me and the risk team and has a thorough understanding of our risk appetites, framework and tolerances. He has already contributed significantly to the development of our proprietary FireAnt aggregation and analytics tool, and he will be looking for opportunities to enhance our risk management and reporting tools for operational and all other risk sectors.”

Fidelis has been particularly successful in raising new capital to support the ongoing expansion of its insurance and reinsurance underwriting platform over the last couple of years, having raised over $1.3 billion in 2020 alone.

That took its equity and debt capital base to more than US $2.4 billion, as we explained last December.

The company recently took an investment from US primary insurer Travelers as well.

Fidelis has also been expanding its use of third-party reinsurance capital, through its sidecar quota shares and third-party capital partnerships through Socium and also its growing catastrophe bond program.

The Herbie Re cat bond issuances alone now amount to $550 million of reinsurance capital raised from the capital markets for the company.

As a result, the Fidelis platform has been growing strongly and so it’s leadership structure becomes all the more important, especially in underwriting given the multiple balance-sheets and capital sources it utilises.