Brit Launches Consortium to Simplify Underwriting of Marine War Breach Call Risks

Brit Ltd. announced the creation of a marine consortium called “Keel,” which aims to revolutionize the writing of marine war and breach call risks.

Keel offers up to $152.2 million of capacity per risk and provides instant quotes that are fully sanctioned screened – an area of increasing importance in the growing regulatory environment affecting marine war risks. The cover is offered globally.

With hundreds of thousands of trips made by vessels each year into high-risk areas excluded from annual war risks protection, “breach calls” are required to provide insurance cover for these events. This has traditionally required a time-consuming placement process for short-term and short-notice trips that are frequently completed before the insurance paperwork is concluded.

A Brit representative explained why sanctions screening traditionally has been complicated. “As marine insurers, we do not just have to apply sanctions screening against the insureds and the locations they operate in, but there is also a sanctions screening requirement that goes to a vessel level,” the representative said in an emailed statement. For example, a vessel that previously conducted activity, which was in breach of international sanctions, would be sanctioned regardless of whether or not the vessel had transferred to a new owner.

“However, the fully automated sanctions screening process within the Keel platform conducts these screening checks instantly and avoids lengthy manual compliance checks that add time and inefficiencies to the quotation process,” the representative explained.

Using a new trading platform that offers brokers a single interaction to place breach calls for vessels in seconds, the Keel consortium directly aims to improve efficiency in covering breach call risks, allowing brokers the opportunity to obtain instant, fully supported quotes around the clock.

“The insurance industry’s placement of breach call risks has historically been an onerous and time consuming process,” said Gary Brice, head of Marine and Space at Brit.

“Through our Keel consortium, Brit is aiming to directly address this, delivering a solution that enables the placement of risks in seconds, not minutes, or days, as is currently the norm. We are delighted to have created Keel, and believe its easy-to-use platform and the technology that sits behind this will help expedite and enhance the writing of marine war breach call risks.”

Source: Brit Ltd.

Topics New Markets Underwriting