UK General’s commercial arm to broaden offering to brokers amid rebrand

The commercial division of UK General wants to expand its underwriting footprint to write business outside the risk appetite of its main capacity provider, XL Catlin.

The news comes as the commercial division has rebranded itself as One Commercial.

Managing director Mike Keating said that One Commercial was in advanced talks with several insurers over providing additional capacity.

He said: “We have an excellent relationship with XL Catlin, but we are also keen to find new revenue streams and broaden the range of specialist products we can offer.”

Keating stressed that a key part of his division’s strategy was to find out from brokers the types of products their customers needed, rather than pushing products to them.

He added: “We are asking where we can help to fill that product gap. That shapes what we want to do in terms of getting capacity and products to brokers.

“[Insurers] like our model, the brokers we are choosing to deal with and the service proposition.”

Rebrand

Following the rebrand, One Commercial will become directly regulated by the FCA from October. It is currently an appointed representative of Rural Insurance, another UK General subsidiary.

Keating said the rebrand would enable the commercial business to act with greater independence and capability.

He added: “Creating a new brand gives us the opportunity to create our identity and to build a proposition around One Commercial.

“As part of the ongoing strategy, we feel the commercial business is at a place where it should have its own identity, which resonates with independent regional brokers.

“Moving to [a regulated entity] allows us to really focus into those independent markets in our own right.”

Claims re-aligned

As part of the rebrand UK General is also making its claims operations more aligned with its underwriting and distribution divisions, making them available to brokers at the point of sale, as well as when a claim is made.

Keating said this would give customers more confidence to know their broker had close ties with the claims team.

Broker consolidation

One Commercial will reduce the number of brokers it works with to between 350 and 400 by the end of summer.

But Keating said it would not hold itself “hostage” to that number, because of brokers that had shown a commitment to do more business since he announced the consolidation plans.

As a result of the consolidation and rebrand, brokers will get better access to empowered underwriters who can respond quicker to enquiries, a higher level of service and more targeted products, Keating said.

A contractors all risk product, a tradesmen insurance offering and a specialist trade risks facility are among new products that One Commercial has launched.