New leader emerges in London cyber underwriting as Mecham retains top casualty spot

The London market has seen a significant shake-up in this year’s Gracechurch ranking of cyber underwriters, with new leaders emerging in the form of Tokio Marine Kiln’s (TMK) Paul Gooch.

The peer nomination-based survey was conducted by Insurindex, a joint venture between insurance research consultancy Gracechurch and Brandex, between February 2022 and May 2023.

The report described TMK’s lead in the class as a “significant margin”, describing the ranking as an “impressive result” considering the carrier did not feature at all in last year’s top five.

Gooch, who was appointed divisional head of large account cyber in May, also placed second in this year’s overall ranking of London underwriters.

Beazley and Brit, who placed second and third respectively in last year’s cyber bench strength ratings, shared second place, although no individual Beazley underwriter appeared on the shortlist.

Last year’s joint winners in the class, Axis and Munich Re, shared third place in the bench strength rankings, but also had no individual underwriters featured.

Second place in the individual rankings went to new entrant Richard Taylor, who has served as head of cyber and technology at Probitas 1492 since April last year following six years at Munich Re Syndicate Limited.

Ben Maidment, head of global cyber, privacy and technology at Brit, was the sole individual cyber underwriter to appear on the list from last year, marking his fifth consecutive year on the shortlist.

Maidment shared third in the individual rankings with Tim Andrews, who serves as cyber line underwriter at Hiscox, having joined the London-listed carrier in January 2020.

In the casualty class, this year’s leading overall individual London underwriter James Mecham also took the top spot. Mecham has served as head of casualty at Arch Insurance International since December 2019.

The Hugh Sturgess-led carrier saw second in the casualty and non-marine liability bench strength rankings, with rival Ascot clinching first place for the second year in a row.

Ascot underwriter Ben Galloway was ranked second individually, with the report noting that this marked his “strong return” to the rankings for the first since 2016.

Executive underwriter David Fitzpatrick also represented Ascot, rounding off the top five.

Although Axa XL placed third in the bench strength ratings the firm saw no individuals in the top five.

Third and fourth were awarded to Canopius head of US general liability Nicola Wood and Brit’s head of North American casualty treaty Andrew Murnieks respectively.

To download the full report click here.