Ramesh Singh: ‘Watch this space’ as Aviva bolsters financial lines with new talent

In April 2024, Aviva hired an influx of talent into its financial lines division, driven by the recognition that this market segment is currently “underpenetrated”.

Among these new hires was Ramesh Singh, the insurer’s new underwriting director of UK financial lines.

In this position, Singh is focusing on steering “growth” within Aviva’s financial lines arm via a “rebranding effort” centred on an internal restructure and ”a focus on long-term planning”, he tells Insurance Times.

This includes seeking to double the class’ gross written premium (GWP) over the next three to five years, as well as bringing in additional “top talent” to further build out the team.

The financial lines hiring drive kickstarted back in April 2024 following Singh’s appointment. The ambition here was to attract “decades of experience” to help the financial lines division “gain momentum”.

Singh says: “We needed to build the right talent and bring the right experience into the business.”

Aviva’s new starters include Samantha Shean, who began her role as head of financial institutions (FI) underwriting in April 2024, and Richard Belsey, the insurer’s head of M&A underwriting, effective from July 2024.

Patrick Waters came on board in June 2024 as underwriting manager for FI, reporting into Shean.

Additionally, Felix Cofie started in July 2024 as underwriting manager in the professional indemnity (PI) team.

H2 planning

For Singh, Aviva’s “bespoke” and “broad” financial lines ”business proposition played a key role” in ”replenishing the senior headcount” and attracting the required talent to this “underrepresented” area of Aviva’s portfolio.

Aviva’s financial lines division – which forms part of its Global Corporate and Specialty (GCS) business – not only offers ”traditional products, such as management liability, professional indemnity and financial institutions coverage”, but it also provides cyber insurance, M&A cover, surety and legal indemnity and access to ”a bespoke crime team”. 

Singh says this spread is ”more bespoke and broader compared to many of our competitors”. In turn, this provides “flexibility” and ”the opportunity to further penetrate” this class of business.

Although both investing in and leveraging the financial lines division’s staff and “underlying infrastructure” is a high priority for Singh, he additionally reveals that Aviva’s primary focus for the remainder of 2024 is to “solidify and expand the Lloyd’s proposition”.

Here, Singh is referring to the insurer’s £249m acquisition of insurance platform Probitas on 10 July 2024.

The transaction granted Aviva ownership of Probitas’ fully integrated Lloyd’s platform and tenancy rights to Syndicate 1492, which reported GWP of £288m and a combined operating ratio of 82% for 2023.

Singh says he plans to utilise “the Lloyd’s platform and Probitas to broaden our market presence beyond the UK”.

He explains: “We are finalising and clarifying our strategy with Lloyd’s.

”Over the next couple of months, we will review the strategic plan framework, working closely with the Probitas team. We have already begun coordinating [this] at Probitas’ offices to gain a better understanding of the model.

“That’s really our main focus for the second half of the year – how to develop and build out the Lloyd’s proposition.”

While Singh is intentionally vague about what the market can expect from the insurer regarding its Lloyd’s proposition, he hints that the industry should “watch this space” for developments in Aviva’s financial lines business.