Caroline Wagstaff, director at financial public relations firm Luther Pendragon, is most familiar to shipping journalists as the go-to person for enquiries about Norwegian marine insurance giant Gard.

But this year she was named interim chief executive of the London Market Group (LMG), an industry association that represents the city’s Lloyd’s of London and non-Lloyd’s insurance businesses. She will serve in the role until the end of the year.

Some might suggest that the continuing rise of the Nordic marine market, which has seen Gard grow into a $1bn annual turnover marine insurance business, has been at the expense of London. But the LMG’s most recent figures suggest that is not the case.

The group's 2020 periodic review, London Matters, indicates that the UK capital's $26bn marine market has also grown its market share over recent years.

“The London marine market had grown its market share, and that has something to do with the size of the vessels, the size of the risk and the increased liabilities. London has the capacity for that,” Wagstaff said.

She has an interest in both Nordic and London camps, but Wagstaff is happy to see the two major European marine insurance markets compete head to head in the marine sector.

“I think everybody would agree competition is a good thing, and for customers it’s great to have two really vibrant markets competing. It makes everybody better,” she said.

Wagstaff has spent a career working in financial services in London, including a stint heading marketing at Lloyd’s of London.

The "once in a lifetime" pandemic hit the London market hard, forcing the temporary closure of the Lloyd’s of London building, which sits at the heart of the unique London insurance community.

Anecdotal evidence

Although the working environment changed dramatically, Wagstaff does not think the stature of the London market has been damaged.

“The anecdotal evidence I get from talking to brokers is that the London market has remained very strong through the pandemic. People have gone back to trusted relationships and tend to stick with the people they know and trust,” she said.

London Market Group interim chief executive Caroline Wagstaff is keen to see a more diverse London insurance community. Photo: Caroline Wagstaff

“I think the numbers for London through the pandemic will stand up. The sense we get is that London remains a compelling proposition for buyers of specialty commercial insurance.”

As well as representing the commercial interest of the London insurance market, Wagstaff is involved in helping to shape its future.

The pandemic has seen more than a doubling of marine policies agreed through the automated Placing Platform Limited (PPL). But personnel interaction is very much something Wagstaff would like to see maintained.

She said the secret to the London market is that the city's insurance sector is its own ecosystem.

“Everyone is working 500 metres from the Lloyd’s of London building. You’ve got 350 brokers and underwriters plus all the claims adjusters and lawyers and all the important support services,” she said.

The executive believes no one in the London market thinks it should be entirely remote.

"The conversations we have around the LMG board are really around the importance of those interpersonal interactions, and it’s not just the formal ones of going up to someone’s box, or presenting a slip, but bumping into someone at a coffee shop and chatting about a problem you’ve got,” she said.

More diversity

Making the London insurance market more diverse to attract more people to the industry is also an important part of the conversation about its future.

Lloyd’s of London found itself the subject of headlines about sexual harassment allegations and, following the killing of George Floyd in the US, its historic role in the slave trade.

Diversity is at the centre of Wagstaff’s efforts to try to make the insurance industry more appealing.

“To be genuinely diverse we need to attract a wider universe of people to specialty insurance and we need to make the sector look as interesting as it is,” she said.

“If we can throw the net wider, and make a better job of explaining the value of insurance and the societal role it plays, we become by definition a more diverse market. But we have to make sure that diversity works its way up the system, and we have better diversity at senior management and beyond.”