New leaders emerge in cyber and casualty underwriter rankings

This year’s Gracechurch London’s Leading Underwriter Ranking has seen a changing of the guard at the top of both the cyber and casualty polls.

Munich Re’s Tom Allen, who polled seventh in the cyber class in last year’s ranking, has risen to the top in 2022.

He surpassed last year’s top ranking cyber underwriter Ben Maidment, with the Brit executive placing second in this year’s survey.

IQUW’s Andrew Lewis, Axis’ James Creasy and CFC’s Philippa Berry make up the top five.

And Ascot’s David Fitzpatrick has jumped from ninth place last year to lead the ranking in the casualty class, overtaking previous leader James Mecham.

Arch underwriter Mecham has dropped to third place in this year’s ranking, with Atrium’s Wesley Butcher finishing second.

Apollo’s Christopher Moore and Tokio Marine Kiln’s David Clark make up the top five.

For underwriter bench strength, which measures the total number of underwriter nominations a carrier receives, CFC, Axis and Munich Re shared top position in the cyber class.

In casualty, Ascot led the bench strength ranking ahead of Axa XL and Tokio Marine Kiln.

For professional indemnity and financial lines, Argenta’s Matthew Waghorn has retained top spot in the individual rankings with Atrium’s Butcher positioned second and Chubb’s Steven Driscoll third.

For overall bench strength, Aegis topped this year’s ranking for the class, with Argenta second and Atrium third.

As previously reported, Faraday’s Nick West topped this year’s ranking across all classes, ending MAP active underwriter Richard Trubshaw’s six-year run as London’s leading underwriter.

West also topped the ranking for the property class, while Trubshaw retained his position at the top of the reinsurance class rankings for a fourth consecutive year.

London’s Leading Underwriters 2022: how the results are calculated

The London’s Leading Underwriters ranking is based on nominations gathered by Gracechurch’s surveys of London market brokers and underwriters.

The surveys are conducted according to Market Research Society professional guidelines through confidential online and telephone interviews.

This year’s ranking is based on data collected between January 2021 and February 2022 which generated more than 1,300 underwriter nominations.

Underwriters are ranked according to the number of mentions within a particular business class, based on the extent to which they are respected for being market leaders.

Nominators are asked to select any underwriter, regardless of seniority. Underwriter names are not prompted so that respondents can freely name any underwriters from any London market insurer, other than their own.

The longlist of underwriters who have been nominated and the lines of business in which they operate is then validated by their employers. For the 2022 ranking, more than 70 percent of underwriters nominated were validated by their business leaders.

The initial findings were presented at a London event held last week by Gracechurch sister company Insurindex, in partnership with The Insurer.

Details on how to receive the full report are available on the Insurindex website here.