AEGIS London’s deputy head of Marine & Energy, Jonathan Humm, recently featured in The Reinsurance Podcast. In an episode devoted to marine insurance, he discussed current market dynamics, significant events and trends which have shaped the market, and AEGIS London’s risk appetite in this broad-ranging class of business.

Jonathan explained that the team’s remit encompasses marine physical damage, hull, liability, war risks, cargo and, more recently, energy risks as well, underwriting all aspects of commercial shipping, some pleasure craft, ports and terminals and, in the energy space, offshore assets including rigs and specialist vessels. On the liability side of the portfolio, it covers all third-party aspects of marine risk, including crew, removal of wreck and pollution.

“Anything that can float, within reason, could be covered by us. We've got weird and wonderful risks that no one quite knows where they fit within the market, like floating casino barges, but we also look at pretty much all the main shipping types,” Jonathan said.

He discussed some of the key incidents that have impacted the marine market recently: from the grounding of the Ever Given container vessel in the Suez Canal; to the Russia-Ukraine crisis, likely to be the marine market’s largest ever war loss; to the ongoing threat to Red Sea shipping from the war in Yemen.

The discussion also covered the changing dynamics of the marine market, from the protracted softening of the previous decade that led to Lloyd’s remediation, to the growth of rival markets in Scandinavia and Singapore, to the continuing need for modernization.

“London still retains its position as a centre of excellence. A lot of that has to do with Lloyd's, but also we have a body of marine expertise in London – underwriters, lawyers, naval architects, adjusters, ship brokers and some clients who form a thriving maritime community,” Jonathan said.

Jonathan stressed the need for the marine insurance sector to evolve through embracing data to enrich underwriting decisions and speed up decision-making on binding risks.

“We're right at the start of that journey. Aegis is very focused on digital products generally, and we're trying to embed AI into our systems to understand our own claims data better and influence our pricing and our decision making,” he explained.

The Reinsurance Podcast is hosted by the co-founders of Supercede, the reinsurance trading platform, Jerad Leigh and Ben Rose.

The full podcast is available to listen to online or download here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zxC5gWn5XE