Barbican creates new Bermuda subsidiary

Barbican Insurance Group has launched Barbican Bermuda, a new underwriting operation located in Hamilton.

According to the company Barbican Bermuda will underwrite a direct and facultative portfolio of business on an excess and surplus lines basis, focusing on the US property market and writing exclusively on behalf of Barbican Syndicate 1955. Building a balanced book that spans both commercial and industrial risks, the team will concentrate on Fortune 1000 corporations as well as middle-market organisations. All business written will be US-domiciled and will include nationwide, regional and single state/location accounts.

The operation will be led by Nik Lucking as head of direct and facultative. He will report to David Slade, divisional head of property at Barbican.

According to Barbican Lucking has considerable experience in the Bermuda re/insurance market. He was previously unit head of US direct and facultative property at AXIS/Novae. Prior to this, Lucking was senior vice president and head of individual risks at Montpelier Re Bermuda, having joined Montpelier Re in 2007. He was also an executive director at Willis, heading-up the firm’s US property team in Bermuda and middle-market team in London.

“Through Barbican Bermuda, we are able to extend the reach of Barbican’s property division in London and strengthen our US direct and facultative market proposition,” said Lucking. “From Bermuda, we are able to bring the security of the Lloyd’s market to an even broader spectrum of organisations, introduce greater diversity into our property portfolio and benefit from the stability that this brings.”

“We see this as an opportune time to establish ourselves in Bermuda,” Slade added. “We believe that Bermuda offers significant opportunities for profitable, sustainable growth in the US direct and facultative arena and Nik brings an exceptional level of underwriting insight and leadership to the operation.”