The syndicate hopes to grow and establish its Lloyd’s presence 

Victor Syndicate 2288 has set its sights on new territories as it revealed its growth plans into 2020 following its launch.

Jill Frances, the syndicate’s newly appointed active underwriter told Insurance Times: “We are looking to disrupt the industry by creating a different business model.”

She explained that this is because Victor’s business is sourced outside of Lloyd’s like a virtual syndicate.

jill-frances_Victor Syndicate 2288

Jill Frances

Frances revealed the syndicate’s 3-5-year plan is to strengthen its brand through its Lloyd’s presence, grow via new products while offering them across wider geographic territories and a broader platform. But it also hopes to expand its territories.

She added: “In 2020 Australia is in our game plan as far as exploring opportunities as part of the JLT acquisition, although we are just in the process of exploring what that might mean bringing them into the Victor umbrella.”

Meanwhile, Frances added that the syndicate intends to use data and analytics as part of the product development and delivery of the service.

She said that the launch of the Marsh-owned MGA’s Victor Syndicate 2288 is confirmation of the firm’s confidence in its business plan. MGA Victor Insurance Holdings is the parent company of Victor International and it claims to be one of the biggest MGAs in the world.

It follow Victor Syndicate 2288 launching earlier this week after having won approval from Lloyd’s of London. 

Tying it all together

“As we look towards our growth plans for Victor International, we are really tying together this global umbrella of all of the Victor entities and it gives us the opportunity to engage with more capital partners and have a stronger presence with the carrier partners in each of the Victor regions if you will or countries. It’s very much the foundation of our strategy for growth,” she added.

The new syndicate will create a mix and diversification of business.

She explained that the way the syndicate is operating is that there is a portion of the business coming in from North America which is ICAT [property insurance provider] and the rest is from Victor International which gives the business a global presence.

Although she explained that people are still learning who the syndicate is even though its entities have been around for quite some time.

Working with brokers

Meanwhile Frances continued that a good deal of its business comes from third-party brokers. The firm looks through for distribution through affinity sources, general retail brokers as well as wholesalers and aggregators.

It caters to small to medium sized businesses (SMEs), when asked what differentiates the syndicate from others, she said that it’s the technology platform driven product that give it the edge as it enables it to process things quickly.

But as far as MGA challenges go, she said that these include keeping up to date with innovation. 

Frances’s new role as active underwriter for Victor Syndicate 2288 involves forming strategic partnerships within the Lloyd’s syndicate, as well as developing the business plan and monitoring it throughout the year through governance and contact with clients.

She is also the chief underwriting officer for Victor International which involves working with the country head to develop products and new lines of business that would potentially come into the syndicate as well as the technology platforms these are operating on.