Capsicum Re swoops for Guy Carpenter MD to expand mortgage indemnity reinsurance business

Guy Carpenter's Stephen Mathews has joined specialist reinsurance broker Capsicum Re's mortgage indemnity reinsurance division. Based in New York, he will head up the division’s global analytics capability.

Mathews has 20 years of reinsurance, capital markets, and advisory experience, including extensive mortgage insurance expertise from his prior roles with Willis Capital Markets & Advisory, Banc of America Merrill Lynch, and Goldman Sachs.

Prior to joining Capsicum Re, Mathews was managing director of Guy Carpenter where he was recruited by senior management from his role in Guy Carpenter Securities to act as a co-founder of Guy Carpenter’s mortgage credit specialty reinsurance practice. He is said to have led Guy Carpenter’s entry into credit risk transfer (CRT) reinsurance.

Steven Rance, managing partner of mortgage indemnity reinsurance, said: “Mortgage risk transfer presents a significant opportunity in a challenging reinsurance market environment and lender appetite is strong and growing.  Since we launched this division in 2017 we have had some great successes notably delivering reinsurance capacity for IMAGIN, the mortgage credit risk transfer (MRT) program created by Freddie Mac in conjunction with Arch and for EPMI, the Fannie Mae MRT vehicle.

“Stephen has a great reputation in the market; his invaluable experience and insight will enable us to grow and continue to provide bespoke and innovative solutions in the mortgage space.”

Mathews said: “I am delighted to be joining the Capsicum Re team. Steve is well respected in this field and his experience and track record as a mortgage insurance executive is a key competitive advantage. There is huge growth potential in this class of business and I am excited to be part of an entrepreneurial company like Capsicum Re. We are building a differentiated business that is focused on providing innovative solutions and unbiased advice for our clients and reinsurance partners on a global basis.”