The Insurer TV: Axis looking to “reclaim our space” as a specialist (re)insurer

Vince Tizzio, who was recently appointed CEO of specialty insurance and reinsurance at Axis Capital, has told The Insurer TV that his company is looking to reclaim its space in the market following its withdrawal from property reinsurance.

Tizzio was appointed to his current role in June, having only joined the Bermudian (re)insurer in January as senior advisor.

He was previously executive vice president and head of global specialty at The Hartford, and was president and CEO of US-based Navigators Management Company prior to its parent’s 2019 acquisition by The Hartford.

When Axis announced Tizzio’s new role in June it also confirmed that it would be pulling out of the property reinsurance business.

The company said it would be doubling down on a specialty (re)insurance model, with the Axis Re division focusing on writing casualty, specialty, A&H and credit lines of business.

Talking to The Insurer TV in the carrier’s New York office, Tizzio explained: “Axis has been a specialist since its founding. It has been engaged in the various marketplaces in London, the United States and elsewhere, but predominantly in the specialty line.

“The recent announcements rededicating ourselves particularly to the specialty insurer and reinsurer space is an evolution of where we’ve always aspired to be, which is a top quintile financial contributor to those respective spaces. Seeing the marketplace dynamic, both in distribution and our acumen of ability and product and people, it really felt like a logical extension to reclaim our space as being a specialist reinsurer and insurer.”

Tizzio believes the specialty insurance and reinsurance marketplace is “filled with lots of opportunity”.

“There’s an unspoken need for continued value-added services and customer delivery – whether it’s through digital, whether it’s through product innovation, we see ample opportunity. Secondly for us at Axis, we believe we have a number of product capabilities that can be leveraged more meaningfully through our existing distribution channels. And then finally, we’ve been a wholesale market for a long time since our founding,” he said.

Discussing the upcoming 1 January reinsurance renewals, Tizzio said that a number of factors will be at play.

“First, in the specialty line space there’s a redoubling of the commitment of the claim-paying capability of the insurance company that people are placing their trust with,” he said. “Number two, in the specialist space, there’s an expectation of transacting with someone that has subject matter domain in the product that they’re bringing to market. Number three, service and time efficiency really matters.”