Io set to broke overseas commercial property and liability

Four top brokers and underwriters have teamed up to launch an insurance and reinsurance broker that will place business in the London Market.

Io Risk Solutions will specialise in placing non-marine overseas commercial property and liability risks. Its founders are:

  • Mark ter Haar, former managing director of Aon Group

  • Neil Dexter, former partner of Jardine Lloyd Thompson and managing director of Heath Fielding International

  • Peter Presland, former chief executive of CE Heath and chairman of Rebus

  • Tim Gunter, managing director of Greenwich Lloyd's Underwriting.

    Io is seeking General Insurance Standards Council (GISC) accreditation and will be able to place business in Lloyd's and the Company Market through its arrangements with independent Lloyd's broker Holman's.

    Holman's will initially provide working capital finance and back office administration.

    Io chairman Presland said it had £50,000 of paid-up capital and "expected to have several million pounds of brokerage" after three years.

    "We can do the back end of the business, but it is expensive to set up the infrastructure from scratch," he said. "Why do it when it already exists in Holman's?"

    He added that Io hopes to become independent in the next two years.

    "The faster we grow the more easily we will be able to cut the umbilical cord," he said.

    "In the next year or so the plans are to take on another half a dozen staff."

    Holman's chief executive Andrew Holman said: "We are pleased to be involved in this new enterprise. For too long the insurance market has been characterised by indifferent service from a few powerful brokers."