DUAL simplifies capacity arrangements with Liberty-led panel

Hyperion-owned underwriting agency DUAL has simplified the capacity arrangements for its non-US international business by setting up a panel led by Liberty Specialty Markets.

Under the new arrangement, Liberty will act as the lead underwriter for $300m (£186.5m) of DUAL’s international capacity. This accounts for roughly 71% of DUAL’s total $425m capacity.

The risks Liberty does not retain will be ceded on a quota-share basis to a new panel of co-insurers and reinsurers, which includes existing capacity provider Barbican. DUAL chief executive and chief underwriting officer Shane Doyle said one of the new reinsurers on the panel is top 20 global reinsurer Everest Re.

The benefit of the new facility is that only the lead underwriter will be involved in auditing the business and dealing with claims. Under the previous arrangement, the capacity providers sat alongside one another rather than behind Liberty, so all had a say.

Doyle said: “What we have done is make sure that capacity providers are trusting the lead or are reinsuring the lead so we don’t have a situation where we have multiple capacity providers all trying to crawl over the audits and claims. It slows down the process.”

The remaining $125m of international capacity will be provided by DUAL’s other key capacity providers, including Hiscox and long-term provider Arch.

This is to ensure DUAL’s main long-term partners will continue to have a share of DUAL’s business.

The capacity providers for the Tamesis DUAL excess-of-loss business and DUAL’s US business remain unchanged.

Doyle said the new facility was a like-for-like replacement for its previous international capacity, and that he expected capacity to grow.

He said: “We would expect it to increase in the next 12 months. We will look to add other lines to it. The quota-share panel led by Liberty should allow us to get capacity faster. Liberty will be able to bring the arrangement to bear on a new line of business that we want to do and and bring in other co-insurers as required after that.”