Why London continues to matter

Ten years ago, the first London Matters data set was published. In it, we examined the importance of the London specialty (re)insurance market in a global context and highlighted some of the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead. It was a seminal moment for the industry – giving it the data and evidence to prove its importance to the UK economy specifically and to the global risk transfer market more generally. It allowed the market to start conversations with government and think about what collective action it could take to reinforce London’s position.

The latest set of data about the global position of the London insurance market was published by the London Market Group in May 2024. It illustrated powerfully once again that London is a genuine world leader in commercial (re)insurance, providing unmatched expertise and innovation; creating products that keep the wheels of the global economic machine moving forward; and enabling investment in new technologies, exploration and research.

In total, the market earned $159 bn in premium in 2022, more than two-thirds of which (68%) came from outside the UK and Ireland, based on gross premiums by insured location. Many buyers come to the London Market having found that domestic insurers do not have an appetite for their risks because they are unique or unusual. For others, it can offer a better price.

The power of data

This data is an incredibly powerful part of the argument we have made to the government and regulators about how both corporates and insurance businesses could benefit from the UK having a genuinely competitive captive regime. Establishing the UK as a captive domicile would strengthen the UK’s position as a genuine world leader in commercial (re)insurance and would also mean that the UK could take advantage of a rapidly growing global market. Globally, the market for captive insurance was worth US$69 billion of premium in 2021 and is estimated to reach US$161 billion by 2030. All parties involved in the insurance and risk transfer industry in the UK (brokers, insurers, captive and risk managers) believe that with the right regulatory structures, the UK would be a popular jurisdiction given its extensive financial services eco-system and expertise.

The 350 insurance businesses in the London Market employ nearly 60,000 highly skilled people in London and across the rest of the UK and contribute $49bn to the UK economy every year. This unique ecosystem offers an unrivalled breadth of expertise and a unique concentration of knowledge and experience. This drives the development of creative solutions to existing and emerging risk transfer problems – both in traditional industries and in newer, fast-growing economies and technologies.

Talent challenges in the London market

There is however a shadow over this incredible pool of talent that centres around the issue of an ageing working population: there are as many people over 50 as under 30 in the London Market. This is a higher percentage than in other parts of financial services, and signals that at a firm and market level we need to be accelerating our efforts to make specialty insurance a destination career for young people.

2024 has seen a real focus on our work to do just that. We have extended the reach of the LondonInsuranceLife website; widening the roles we highlight to include claims and increasing the number of role models – both school leavers and graduates – that we profile. We have also significantly increased the number of entry level roles and programmes being advertised on the site.

We have also committed more resource and energy to generate traffic by highlighting the material in the channels in which young people gather – social media! TikTok, Instagram and LinkedIn. Topics have been driven by the interests of our viewers and range from ‘how do you get a good CV?’ to risks in a football match which got 100,000 views in the first 24 hours. We have made our own content, worked with influencers and even had a cat video!

Where this talent drive goes next

Our most tangible results have come from our schools’ outreach programme. In 2023, we placed 115 students in 30 market firms for work experience. One-third of our participants applied to come back in the autumn for our second new event: the Apprentices Discovery programme, where 20 firms who were hiring for apprentices met students in a careers fair. So far, eight of those students have found jobs in the market – a career that none had heard of 12 months ago. This summer we will host 150 students!

These are however just the beginnings. To succeed, we have to keep going: every year our target audience is completely refreshed and we have to start again.  It seems we have all learned that we can make change happen on talent, but to do so we have to work together and commit to this for the long term. Hopefully as we come back to the London Matters data in future years, we will see the shift in the market demographic that we are seeking.