Lloyd's broker Avid targets 'underserved' GAP market with ex-Mapfre Duxbury

Lloyd's coverholder, general insurance broker and managing general agent  Avid Insurance has hired ex- Mapfre executive Steve Duxbury to lead push into the "underserved" Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP) insurance market.

Duxbury will head up Avid's new GAP and ancillaries division, which is expected to launch in March. He will be responsible for launching a suite of GAP products to brokers, the motor trade, online GAP retailers and leasing businesses.

The company's entry into the ancillaries sector follows the launch into the equine, motor sport and leisure space in September last year.

Duxbury is an experienced insurance executive who was previously head of UK sales at Mapfre Assistance (automotive specialty risk), where he headed up business development for travel and motor ancillary. He has also held client and business development roles at Long Hawk (now part of UK General) and Direct Line Group. Duxbury has over 20 years experience in general insurance.

Duxbury believes there is a great opportunity in an underserved sector after a period of instability that saw the failure of a number of foreign GAP insurers, and the withdrawal of capacity from the sector. “It’s an exciting time again for the motor ancillaries market, on the back of growth in new and used car sales after the lockdown, and new financing products which are encouraging consumers to trade up to higher value vehicles,” he said.

Duxbury highlighted that the new FCA regulation of GAP had also influenced the decision by a number of capacity providers to return to the market. “New compliance rules for GAP, including capped commissions, have helped professionalise the sales process. Aggregators are also now selling GAP, which has driven more demand for the product,” he said.

He added: “The big difference now is that capacity providers want profitable sustainable business. At Avid we are aiming initially for a small number of good quality long term relationships, with first class data analytics and performance management to ensure we steer away from poor risk selection.

“We will apply the same rigour to GAP as general motor insurance in respect of risk profiling, risk selection, pricing, MI and analysis, via Avid’s experienced in-house team of underwriters and data analysts. Our strategy is completely different from the sales-at-any cost approach which caused so much disruption in the GAP market a few years ago.”

Avid CEO Steve Gibson said: “It’s great news that Avid has attracted someone of Steve’s quality and experience. At Mapfre he built successful partnerships with Peugeot Citroen and other leading OEMS, as well as dealers and finance houses, so he is a very well-known and trusted figure in the motor GAP and ancillaries sector. Avid’s success is built on our team of experienced underwriters’ deep market knowledge, use of data and a ruthless focus on profitable underwriting. I am confident that Steve will create a highly successful new GAP division to sit alongside our other specialisms in leisure, social housing, and travel.”

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