London’s leading cyber, casualty and PI & FL underwriters revealed…

Beazley has topped the bench strength ranking for both cyber and professional indemnity and financial lines in this year’s London’s Leading Underwriters survey, despite having no individual underwriters in either category amid a spate of new entrants.

The peer nomination-based survey was conducted by Insurindex, a joint venture between insurance research consultancy Gracechurch and Brandex, between March 2023 and May 2024.

For professional indemnity and financial lines, Beazley retained its leading bench strength position while runner-up Sompo International (a newcomer to the table) saw senior vice president Anthony Tjong place joint seventh on the individual shortlist.

The individual ranking was led by Gary Lill, head of professional lines at IQUW.

Second place went to Berkshire Hathaway’s Chris Warrior, a new entrant to the table this year.

Fellow new entrants Jana Ratnajothy of Convex and David Mulvaney of Hiscox rounded out this year’s professional indemnity shortlist in third and fourth place, respectively.

Beazley overtakes TMK for cyber bench strength lead

In cyber, Beazley overtook Tokio Marine Kiln to lead the bench strength table – although, similar to last year when in joint second place, it saw no individual underwriters rank in the top five.

Also without an individual underwriter was Markel, which placed second for bench strength after being absent since topping the cyber ranking in 2019.

Munich Re placed joint third alongside Axis.

Richard Spotswood, head of cyber at Newline, and Andrew Lewis, cyber lead underwriter at IQUW, jointly led the individual cyber ranking.

Brit’s Ben Maidment features on the list for the sixth consecutive year in joint third position, alongside last year’s class leader Paul Gooch of Tokio Marine Kiln, as well as Zurich’s Nicholas Pritchard and Hiscox’s Tim Andrews.

Convex rises five places as Canopius’ Wood named top casualty underwriter

In the casualty class, Canopius’ head of US general liability Nicola Wood took the top spot (up from third position last year), as well as leading the 2024 female underwriter shortlist.

Ben Galloway of Ascot placed second in the individual casualty underwriter ranking for a second consecutive year, with third place split between AIG’s Peter Bone, Convex’s Dervla Lynchehaun and Arch’s James Mecham (last year’s leading overall individual London underwriter).

Unlike the cyber and professional indemnity lines, bench strength leader Convex (up a significant five places from the 2023 report) also had an individual underwriter placed in the top five.

Axa XL rose one place to runner-up with Apollo re-entering the table after a dip in 2023, ahead of Ascot, QBE and Canopius.

To register to receive the full report when it is published next week, click here. The Insurer is media partner for the annual nomination-based survey – conducted by Gracechurch and presented by Insurindex – alongside Slipcase as digital content partner. Slipcase distributes a curated selection of content to the world’s (re)insurance industry professionals and businesses.