Markel International and Talbot Underwriting have teamed up to provide a new binder facility with a capacity of up to a maximum of £21 million ($30million USD) per risk for Directors and Officers (D&O) liability exposures in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) via Lloyd’s Dubai.
Last week’s announcement came as the two leading insurers revealed their wish to combine their respective expertise and knowledge of the D&O risks in the MEA marketplace to provide the binder as an alternative to other markets in the region.
Dubai, the city that grew out of the Middle East desert into an leading global business, has managed over the past years to attract some of the biggest names in finance to the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), a special-purpose free zone governed by English common law.
Lloyd’s of London, the world’s specialist market for insurance and reinsurance, established a presence in Dubai last year when it opened its underwriting platform operating from the DIFC.
James Hastings, managing director of Markel’s professional and financial risks division, said: “We opened our office in the DIFC because, with the development of Lloyd’s in Dubai, we saw more business being placed locally and wanted to take advantage of that trend. Our partnership with Talbot now gives us opportunity to do that on D&O risks in the broad region serviced by the Dubai platform.”
