XL extends Shariah compliant capacity to financial lines

XL Group has pledged its support for specialist Shariah compliant managing general agency, Cobalt Underwriting, with cover for financial lines products spanning financial institutions, professional indemnity and management liability.

XL’s insurance operations have been providing Shariah compliant cover for property and construction risks for a year now through Cobalt Underwriting.

Commenting on the decision to extend the offering into financial lines, Louise Dennerståhl, head of international financial lines, says: “We saw real synergies and opportunities to innovate here.  Financial institutions, for example, often have property assets or are investing in property, and we have the appetite and capacity to provide these clients with a market leading range of products covering their professional liabilities.”

“Additionally, we anticipate strong interest from design professionals tendering and working on many of the huge infrastructure projects underway across the Middle East. For these companies, buying their insurance in this manner could be a real differentiator in what is a highly competitive marketplace. ”

Richard Bishop, CEO of Cobalt Underwriting says: “We are delighted to have furthered the tremendous relationship we enjoy with XL Group. Financial institutions are so important to the prosperity and operation of the Islamic finance sector which continues to grow in both size and sophistication.”

Bishop believes the potential market is significant, and says that the projected value of the global Islamic finance services industry is expected to be $4 trillion by 2020 with the total value of Islamic assets expected to grow from an estimated value of $1.8 trillion in 2013 to in excess of $6.5 trillion by that time.

Bishop concludes, “The growth of Islamic finance has continued to be at a rate well above the global average and there is a clear appetite from Islamic companies to play a bigger role in the global economy. Our offering should have particular relevance to Islamic financial institutions that, until now, have had little choice but to purchase conventional insurance solutions if they required the quality security offered by an insurer such as XL Group.  They now can get that same security, but in a form that satisfies their Shariah principles.”