Starr is the star of 2024’s Underwriting Gold Awards

The UK general insurance (UKGI) marketplace continues to be a complex and difficult area in which to operate, with claims inflation, ongoing regulatory changes and a swathe of political and geopolitical uncertainties all combining to put pressure on insurers.

This is why Insurance Times is delighted to exclusively reveal the winners of the Insurance DataLab Underwriting Gold Awards for 2024 within its Top 50 Insurers report – published in October 2024 – with this year’s cohort of winners once again demonstrating resilience and underwriting excellence in a highly challenging market.

The winners of these awards – which include general insurers in the UK and Gibraltar, as well as Lloyd’s syndicates – have delivered outstanding results.

This analysis is based on metrics across three pillars of performance – underwriting performance over the past 12 months, three-year underwriting performance and the improvement in underwriting performance.

For insurers, the analysis looks at the combined operating ratio (COR), as calculated based on data from the latest Solvency and Financial Condition Reports, while the analysis for Lloyd’s syndicates is based on the underwriting result relative to gross written premium (GWP), as taken from the syndicate accounts filed at Lloyd’s.

Rising to the top of the table for 2024 are a trio of winners, with Starr International (Europe) receiving the highest Insurance DataLab underwriting rating for UK-regulated general insurers with a score of 79%.

WDP Insurance was the top rated Gibraltarian insurer with a score of 82%, while Beazley took the top spot at Lloyd’s for the performance of Syndicate 2623 with a rating of 77%.

This is the second consecutive year that Starr International (Europe) has won an underwriting gold award, after it finished fourth last year with a score of 83%, making it the only UK-regulated insurer to retain its place at the top end of the table.

Despite the five percentage point worsening of its overall score, the insurer did manage to achieve improved results under two of Insurance DataLab’s ratings pillars.

A COR of 50.4% earned the insurer an underwriting performance rating of 86%, which represents a one percentage point improvement on the previous year.

Meanwhile, a three-year aggregate COR of 53.7% earned Starr International (Europe) a standardised score of 84% – the third highest rating in this analysis and a one percentage point improvement on the 83% rating it recorded for 2023.

While the insurer also managed to report an improved COR compared with the previous year, an improvement of 0.9 percentage points was only enough to earn it an underwriting improvement rating of 60%, down from 78% the previous year when it reported a 9.6 percentage point improvement in its COR.

Best of the rest

Second on Insurance DataLab’s list of the best UK regulated insurers is Hiscox Insurance with an overall underwriting rating of 73% – an eight percentage point improvement on last year’s score of 65%.

The insurer’s performance was buoyed by a 13.2 percentage point improvement in its COR to 80%. This earned Hiscox an underwriting improvement rating of 76%, up from 56% the year before when it reported a slight increase of its COR of 0.7 percentage points.

This highly profitable COR earned the insurer a 74% underwriting performance rating, up from 68% the previous year.

Meanwhile, a three-year aggregate COR of 88.6% earned Hiscox a standardised score of 70%, up from 66% the previous year when the insurer reported a three-year aggregate COR of 98.4%.

The five remaining award winners from the UK all earned an Insurance DataLab underwriting rating of 71%, with Sabre, Allianz Insurance, Ecclesiastical, Axa XL UK and Admiral (UK) all first time winners of this award.

Admiral (UK) was the most improved of the five. It experienced a 14 percentage point jump in its overall rating, buoyed by an 85.9% COR, down from 93% the previous year, as the insurer reported strong results across the three pillars that make up the overall rating.

Axa XL (UK) and Sabre also benefited from a double digit increase in their overall ratings. Like Admiral (UK), Sabre reported strong results across the board, while Axa XL (UK)’s climb up the ranking was driven by a 20 percentage point improvement in its COR, earning it an underwriting improvement rating of 81%.

When it comes to Gibraltarian insurers, WDP Insurance is on the top of the pile with an overall underwriting rating of 82%. This is the second consecutive year that WDP Insurance has earned an Insurance DataLab gold award, after finishing third last year with a rating of 71%.

The insurer’s upturn in performance was driven by an underwriting improvement rating of 74%, up from just 37% a year earlier, after it improved its COR by 7.5 percentage points. This was also the second best rating of all the Gibraltarian insurers in this analysis.

Meanwhile, the 51.6% COR reported by WDP Insurance earned it an underwriting performance rating of 85%, up from 82% the previous year when the insurer reported a COR of 59.1%.

A three-year aggregate COR of 53.8% secured the insurer a standardised score of 84% for 2024, versus 83% in 2023, with the insurer leading the Gibraltarian market on two of the three reporting pillars.

Second placed Alwyn, with an overall rating of just over 72%, makes its debut as a gold award winner after an eight percentage point improvement in its underwriting rating.

The insurer, which is part of the Arch Capital Group, was rated highest in terms of Insurance DataLab’s underwriting performance rating after it knocked 13.2 percentage points off its COR to earn a standardised score of 75% – the highest of all Gibraltarian insurers in this analysis.

Its 2023/24 COR of 83.4% earned the insurer an underwriting performance rating of 72%, which is five percentage points better than the 67% rating it received from Insurance DataLab the previous year.

Meanwhile, a three-year aggregate COR of 90.1% earned Alwyn a standardised score of 70% – one percentage point higher than the 69% rating the insurer earned a year earlier.

Third on Insurance DataLab’s list of Gibraltarian award winners is Acasta European Insurance, with a score of a little over 72%. This is in line with the previous year, when the insurer finished second.

A COR of 78.4% earned Acasta European Insurance an underwriting performance rating of 74%, three percentage points higher than the previous year when it reported a COR of 86%.

This 7.6 percentage point improvement in the insurer’s COR also earned Acasta European Insurance an underwriting improvement rating of 69%, although this was eight percentage points less than the previous year’s score of 77%.

A three-year aggregate COR of 88.1%, meanwhile, earned the insurer a three-year underwriting performance rating of 70% – the same score it received in 2023.

The remaining two Gibraltarian award winners for 2024 are Haven, with a score of a little under 72%, and Trinity Lane, which recorded a 71% score.

The final series of gold awards for 2024 goes to the top performing Lloyd’s syndicates, with six seeing success – all of them first time winners.

Beazley Furlonge-managed Syndicate 2623 is top of the pile with an overall underwriting rating of a little over 77%. This is some 15 percentage points higher than last year, after the syndicate reported a much improved underwriting result for 2023/24.

The syndicate received a 95% underwriting improvement rating after its underwriting result grew to £401.6m this year, up from £174.9m in the prior year. This also earned the syndicate an underwriting performance rating of 72%, while a three-year aggregate underwriting rating of £739.1m earned it a standardised score of 70%.

The performance of Syndicate 2623 also helped Beazley claim the title of the top performing group in this year’s Top 50 Insurers, with an aggregate score of 76%.

The second placed syndicate for 2024 is Talbot Underwriting-managed Syndicate 1183, with an overall rating of a little under 77%.

The syndicate, which forms part of AIG in the UK, improved its rating by a highly impressive 21 percentage points, fuelling a 92% underwriting improvement rating, after it grew its underwriting result by some £68.5m to £95.5m for 2023/24.

This profitable underwriting result earned the syndicate an underwriting performance rating of 72%, while a three-year aggregate underwriting result of £178.5m resulted in a standardised score of 70%.

Third on the list of the best performing syndicates is Markel-managed Syndicate 3000, with an overall rating of a little over 76%. The syndicate returned to profit-making territory this year with an underwriting result of £63.4m, up from a loss of £27.5m last year. This earned the syndicate a 95% underwriting improvement rating, up from 33% last year, and an underwriting performance rating of 72% – versus 2023’s 60%.

This, combined with a 21 percentage point improvement in the syndicate’s three-year underwriting performance rating, resulted in a 26 percentage point improvement in its overall score – the biggest in this analysis – as it shot up the table to claim its first ever Insurance DataLab gold award.

The remaining three award winning syndicates all received a rating of 76%. They are the MS Amlin Underwriting managed Syndicate 2001, Canopius’ Syndicate 4444 and Munich Re run Syndicate 457.