London’s leading marine and energy underwriters revealed…

Chubb’s David Kirk has retained his position at the top of the Gracechurch London’s Leading Underwriter Ranking for the marine class for 2022. 

He held off the challenge of Hiscox’s Robert Read, who polled second in this year’s ranking, with Philip Sandle (Beazley), Jason Roe (Chubb) and Bruce Lane (The Hartford) making up the top five. 

Beazley ranked highest for marine “bench strength”, receiving more nominations than any other carrier. Chubb moved into second place with Ascot and QBE tied for third. 

There was also no change at the top of the energy ranking, with Munich Re’s James Grainger receiving most nominations in the class for the third year in a row.

Canopius underwriter Rachel Sabbarton was ranked second ahead of another Munich Re representative, Florian Riess. 

Convex’s Steve Hawkins and Lancashire’s Alex Priestley made up the top five. 

Munich Re also topped the energy bench strength ratings, ahead of last year’s leader Convex in second place. 

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, which saw a substantial increase in nominations compared with 2021.

He rose from third position in last year’s property rankings to finish above Tokio Marine Kiln’s Neil Robertson in second and Ark’s Tim Hankey in third. 

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.