Headed by Jon Turner, Brit Insurance’s Reinsurance Underwriting Centre competes globally with other major reinsurers, especially those based in Continental Europe, Bermuda and at Lloyd's. The Group’s aim for this strategic business unit is to participate in this potentially high margin global business whilst managing its risk profile. The levels of business written by this will be restricted to a target limit of 25% of the Group’s gross written premium because of the higher implicit volatility in reinsurance compared with the Group’s other markets.

Strategy

The Reinsurance Underwriting Centre’s strategy is aligned to our Group goals and strategy in terms of profitability, growth, market position and control of risks. It focuses on:

• Achieving steady growth with focus on bottom-line profitability
• Managing risk efficiently and cost-effectively;
• Offering multi-class capability with capacity to quote and lead business;
• Enhancing technical approach and delivering a first-class all-round service to customers;

2006 achievements

• Record profit before tax of £76.5m;
• Development of business written while making a significant contribution to the Group’s profitability;
• Delivered enhanced risk aggregation tools together with improved suite of pricing and modelling tools;
• Risk appetite refined and gross and net catastrophe exposures actively managed.

2007 priorities

• Continue to focus on pricing, modelling and risk aggregation, further utilising the new tools delivered in 2006;
• Achieve steady underlying growth with focus on bottom-line profitability.