Client and broker relationships

The value of the Group’s brands is enhanced by the extent to which Amlin is perceived as a high integrity organisation. It is therefore an important business need, as well as desirable in itself, for Amlin to act with the highest possible integrity in dealing with brokers and clients. This goes with aiming for high levels of service, as poor service fails clients. Commentary on our client relations is provided in the Review.

In 2007, Amlin has:

  • Continued to research broker and client relationships with a view to improving our understanding of their expectations of us.
  • Led and been engaged in a number of initiatives, some involving the wider Lloyd’s market, aimed at removing inefficient market processes and improving client service.

The Group operates a client complaints policy with procedures for reporting, investigating and responding to complaints. Complaints are logged centrally, their resolution is monitored and their nature and frequency is reported to operating company boards. Of 127 complaints received in 2007 or brought forward (2006: 211), 40% were settled in four weeks or less and a further 20% in four to eight weeks. 16 complaints were outstanding at the year end (2006: 33).

The Lloyd’s market

Amlin is one of the largest participants in the Lloyd’s market and 77% of Amlin’s 2007 net earned premium was written through Lloyd's. As such, Amlin seeks to contribute positively to all aspects of the Lloyd’s community, including the sound governance and operation of the market so that it remains attractive to brokers and clients for the placement of their risks.

In 2007:

  • Representatives of Amlin participated on the Lloyd’s Council, Lloyd’s Investment Committee, Lloyd’s Market Claims Group, and on the board of the Lloyd’s Market Association and on many of its committees, including its Marine, Motor, Aviation, Finance and Risk committees. Amlin’s Operations Director also completed a secondment to Lloyd’s during the year. In the wider London market, representatives also serve on the Council of the Insurance Institute of London and the British Insurance Law Association.
  • Amlin has become part of the Lloyd’s community in Singapore by opening an office there to utilise the Lloyd’s Asia platform and is participating in reviewing risks from Lloyd’s China Reinsurance Co Ltd. Such initiatives are driven by commercial considerations but, where mutually beneficial, strengthen Lloyd’s as well as Amlin.
  • Amlin professionals continue to work with the Lloyd’s market and its associations to drive forward market reform technologies, both as early adopters and by encouraging all our peers and broker counterparties to use them. Amlin also encourages and supports Lloyd’s in its own community and corporate responsibility activities, including making an annual donation to the Lloyd’s Community Programme.

Environment

As a financial services business employing 673 people at the year end, mainly in the UK, Amlin’s direct environmental impact is relatively low. Global climate change, however, is expected to have a major impact on the insurance industry and on its evaluation of insurance risks, particularly wind, flood and fire risks.

Climate change

Climate change affects an estimated 35% to 40% of global insured risks and is thus a significant external risk to the business. As an underwriter of property and catastrophe risk, Amlin has a keen interest in understanding the effects of climate change and ensuring that changes to our risk profile arising from climate change are factored into our risk management, structuring and pricing of products. Amlin subscribes to a number of risk modelling agencies which are evaluating the impact of climate risk. Whilst uncertainty over climatic conditions creates insurance opportunities, as a catastrophe insurer we have a vested interest in ensuring that such risks do not become uninsurable. Allied to our thorough analysis of such risks, it is therefore in our interest that international action to contain climate change, in which we believe business should play a full part, is successful. In the meantime, we are able to help insureds in vulnerable parts of the world to cope with its consequences by continuing to offer cover, at a commercial price, that some insurers avoid.

In October 2007, Amlin therefore became a signatory to the Climatewise principles, an initiative produced through consultation between the Association of British Insurers, The Prince of Wales’s Business & the Environment Programme, Lloyd’s and other insurance market participants. This represents an industry-wide commitment to monitor and take appropriate action on climate change. In order to explore fully the risks and opportunities presented by climate change, and to fulfil our the commitment made, we have formed a new Climate Change Panel composed of senior underwriters from across our business and chaired by the Chief Risk Officer. More details of the other governance changes affecting corporate responsibility are included in the Board Corporate Governance statement.

Managing Amlin’s direct impact

Amlin aims to manage the environmental impact of its activities, including by focussing on such areas as internal processes, responsible consumption, re-cycling, energy use and the encouragement of our suppliers and clients to act responsibly regarding environmental impact and risks. We continue to monitor initiatives for energy efficiency and resource management which we have put in place in recent years in our various sites and keep abreast of new initiatives in this area.

As tenants in several of our offices, we do not have primary control over all energy purchasing and waste management decisions. However, we fully support the initiatives taken by Aviva, our St. Helen’s landlords. Amlin has won a Gold Award every year since 1998 under the City of London Clean City Award in recognition of our waste management practices.

During 2007, we initiated a regular feature in Amlin Update, our staff newsletter, which is designed to raise employee awareness of the facts and implications of climate change. We also suggest ways in which they might reduce energy consumption and increase recycling, both as individuals and as employees of a responsible company.