The London market's best insurers, reinsurers and brokers were revealed in front of a packed crowd at the Reactions London Market Awards Dinner on June 12.
The winners, judged by an independent panel from the London market, picked up their awards at the Grange City Hotel in London, in front of a crowd of 300 of the London market's biggest names.
The night's big winners were RSA, Transatlantic Re, Aon and Benfield.
RSA stood out in the insurance category receiving the awards for best property insurer and best insurer overall. In addition, RSA's CEO Andy Haste won best insurance company leader.
Transatlantic Re came away with awards in the reinsurance category for best political risk reinsurer, best casualty reinsurer and best reinsurer overall. However, Transatlantic was beaten to the award for best reinsurance leader. This was picked up by Tony Holt, chief underwriting officer of Amlin. Amlin also won the award for best property reinsurer.
Aon dominated the insurance broking categories, winning four awards. It won the awards for best insurance broker for casualty, property and aviation, as well as the award for best overall insurance broker.
Benfield and Guy Carpenter both had strong showings in the reinsurance broking categories. Benfield was voted best reinsurance broker for political risk, property and best overall. Guy Carpenter won the casualty and marine classes.
Awards were also given to individuals of outstanding merit within the London market. Dane Douetil, CEO of Brit, picked up the award for most influential individual. Mathew Yeldham, head of international insurance at Aspen, won the future industry leader award. And John Goldsmith, who retired from the London market last September, received his lifetime achievement award. He is the former chairman of Towers Perrin Clayton.
"I want to thank the people at Claytons, without their support I wouldn't have achieved this," Goldsmith told the audience when collecting his award. "I am glad to have been part of Claytons for more than 20 years. Thank you very much indeed."
The full list of winners is:
Insurance Companies
Best Insurance Company Underwriting Political Risk – Beazley Group
Best Insurance Company Underwriting Casualty – QBE Europe
Best Insurance Company Underwriting Property – RSA
Best Insurance Company Underwriting Marine – Ace European Group
Best Insurance Company Underwriting Energy – Ascot Underwriting
Best Insurance Company Underwriting Aviation – AIG Europe [UK]
Best Insurance Company – RSA
Best Insurance Company CEO – Andy Haste, RSA
Reinsurance Companies
Best Reinsurance Company Underwriting Political Risk – Transatlantic Re
Best Reinsurance Company Underwriting Casualty – Transatlantic Re
Best Reinsurance Company Underwriting Property – Amlin
Best Reinsurance Company Underwriting Marine – Swiss Re
Best Reinsurance Company Underwriting Energy – Kiln Group
Best Reinsurance Company Underwriting Aviation – Cathedral Underwriting
Best Reinsurance Company – Transatlantic Re
Best Reinsurance Company Leader – Tony Holt, Amlin
Insurance Broking Companies
Best Insurance Broker For Political Risk – BPL
Best Insurance Broker For Casualty – Aon Risk Services [UK]
Best Insurance Broker For Property – Aon Risk Services [UK]
Best Insurance Broker For Marine – Marsh
Best Insurance Broker For Energy – Willis
Best Insurance Broker For Aviation – Aon Risk Services [UK]
Best Insurance Broker – Aon Risk Services [UK]
Best Insurance Broking CEO – Paul Bridgwater – RK Harrison
Reinsurance Broking Companies
Best Reinsurance Broker For Political Risk – Benfield
Best Reinsurance Broker For Casualty – Guy Carpenter
Best Reinsurance Broker For Property – Benfield
Best Reinsurance Broker For Marine – Guy Carpenter
Best Reinsurance Broker For Energy – Aon Re Global [UK]
Best Reinsurance Broker For Aviation – Marsh Aviation
Best Reinsurance Broker – Benfield
Best Reinsurance Broking CEO – Dominic Christian, Benfield
Service providers
Best Law Firm – Barlow Lyde & Gilbert
Best Run-Off Firm – Axiom
Best Accountancy Firm – KPMG
Best Rating Agency – S&P
Individuals
Future Industry Leader – Matthew Yeldham, Aspen
Most Influential Individual – Dane Douetil, Brit Insurance
Lifetime Achievement – John Goldsmith, Towers Perrin
Following the success of last year's awards, Reactions took steps to improve the nomination process even further to get the truest reflection of the market. We are confident our revamped nomination process makes the awards both unique and unequivocal.
In the first step of the process, we extensively surveyed through an online poll and personal interviews risk managers, insurers, reinsurers and brokers to find out who they believe are the best firms operating in the London market in a number of categories.
The companies receiving votes were then contacted by Reactions and asked to complete a standard entry form. The form asked firms to explain why they believe they are best in the category they have been nominated.
Lastly, in February an independent panel of judges from the London market debated each firm's merits, taking the number of reader votes and the company's entry form into account. After intense and lively debate, the panel decided on a winner for each category, as well as two other firms to be short-listed. The panel also picked out the winners of the individual awards.
In the panel, the broking executives were not present for deliberations over the broking categories and the underwriting executives were not present for deliberations for the insurance and reinsurance categories.
The result is what we believe is the most credible awards process in the industry
The judging panel:
Association executives
Paul Howard, deputy chairman of Airmic; chief risk officer at Sainsbury's
David Matcham, chief executive officer of the International Underwriting Association
Steve Matanle, chairman of the Market Reform Group at the time of judging, now managing director at Libero.
Underwriting executives:
Mark Berry, general manager of XL Re Europe's London branch
Jeremy Brazil, director of London underwriting at Markel International
Habib Kattan, head of ceded reinsurance at Kiln
Jonathan Parry, managing director of QBE Europe
Keith Stibbards, executive vice-president of casualty at Ace overseas general
Broking executives:
Dominic Christian, chief executive officer of Benfield's international division
Charlie Davies, director of insurance relationships at Aon
Nick Frankland, chief executive officer of European operations for Guy Carpenter
John Muir, head of London markets at Willis
Larry Tucker, managing director of specialty and capital markets at Aon Re