Asta unveils first Lloyd's syndicate-in-a-box with £15m stamp capacity

Asta, a third-party managing agent at Lloyd’s, has launched its first syndicate-in-a-box, having received in-principle approval from Lloyd’s to start writing business effective July 2020 with a stamp capacity of £15 million.

The capacity is estimated to rise to £62.5 million in the third year.

Nicholas Tye has been appointed active underwriter for syndicate 4747, supported by a management team at Carbon Underwriting consisting of Stephen Card as chief executive officer, Jacqui Ferrier as the chief underwriting officer, and Ben Laidlaw as senior underwriter and chief technology officer.

4747 is a specialist syndicate launched by the team at Carbon Underwriting to drive transformation in the London MGA market. It will operate as an underwriting and data lead with a keen focus on coverholder partnership.

Asta said Syndicate 4747 is supported by its proprietary technology platform ‘Graphene’ which presents underwriters and coverholders with superior data that supports profitable underwriting decisions. The syndicate acts as an "incubator, enhancer and springboard for MGAs" to encourage accretive and profitable growth. Permission for syndicate 4747 to underwrite will follow successful completion of Lloyd’s “making it happen” review work.

Julian Tighe, chief executive officer of Asta, said: “We are very pleased to unveil our first syndicate-in-a-box (SIAB) at Lloyd’s. This is testament to the significant role that we have played in developing the SIAB framework and our commitment to create a lower-cost and fast-tracked route into Lloyd’s for entrepreneurial underwriters. The launch of Carbon is proof that Asta’s cost-effective SIAB platform offers MGAs scalability through diversification, wider distribution, reduced reliance on third party capital and a greater share of underwriting profits.

Tighe added: “The agility and cost-efficiency of our SIAB framework, reinforces Asta’s position as an independent managing agent which offers a flexible range of solutions that not only facilitate entry to Lloyd’s, but adapt to the changing needs of businesses throughout their lifecycle.”

Tye commented: “The new syndicate will on-board current and prospective coverholders in the property and casualty space in the first instance. Our intention is to broaden our portfolio of classes as they fit with our business model and market conditions. Our goal with syndicate 4747 is to encourage efficient and profitable growth for MGAs. We want to champion Lloyd’s as the globally preferred binder capacity market.

"Our MGA clients will benefit from our underwriting being solely dedicated to their business and not being written as part of a wider open market account. In a world where clients demand accurate service on a faster turnaround our in-house platform, Graphene, gives us a unique insight into our client’s business. This gives both us and the client a focus on data enabled decisions whilst driving accelerated profit growth for the syndicate and the MGA.”