Lloyd’s market expense ratio is expected to see a 0.4 percentage point improvement to 38.5 percent for 2020 as a decline in acquisition costs is partially offset by a rise in admin costs. 

Slides from a Lloyd’s market presentation and seen by The Insurance Insider show that the projected acquisition cost ratio will fall 0.7 points to 25.9 percent for 2020, while the admin cost ratio will tick up by 0.2 points to 12.5 percent.  The two components add up to a rounded 38.5 percent, according to the Lloyd’s slide, down from a forecast 38.9 percent for 2019.  

The lower acquisition cost ratio is thought to be due to a changing business mix at Lloyd’s.  

Lloyd’s said in the slide deck that “no real progress” had been made on expense ratios, with actual expenses in sterling continuing to rise.  

The 38.5 percent total expense ratio is a projection based on 2020 business plans and could end up being higher or lower come the end that year. The forecast final expense ratio for 2019 is expected to be 0.3 points lower than that projected in 2019 business plans.  

The projected 2020 expense ratio is also 1.8 points lower than that booked in 2018.  

Performance management director Jon Hancock has previously made clear that 2020 business plans would not be approved without an improvement in the expense ratio year on year. 

He has previously told this publication that drive to reduce expenses was a “principle not a rule” and the performance management directorate would not enforce set targets on expense ratio reduction, as every syndicate is different.  

He noted that there were some syndicates in Lloyd’s which had “super competitive” expense ratios and it would be foolish to expect them to cut those even further. 

Research into admin costs at syndicate level has also found that there is no correlation between the size of a syndicate and its admin expense ratio, contrary to the popular belief that administrative costs decline as a syndicate grows.

Expense reduction is a major focus of the Future at Lloyd’s strategy. CEO John Neal has previously said Lloyd’s was targeting a 25-30 percent expense ratio within five years via digitisation, automation, simplification of processes and end-to-end processing at Lloyd’s.  

Our client, a US owned general insurance company with a global presence is looking to recruit a Newly Qualified Accountant who has previous insurance experience, ideally London Market, to join their London finance team.

Role responsibilities include playing a pivotal role in quarter end reporting; organising and allocating close process tasks, reviewing journals, preparing quarter end timetable, expense allocation for both planning and in PeopleSoft, understanding the FX process and consolidations. Also this position includes planning responsibilities; preparation of SBF, building GAAP plans, overseeing junior team members and reviewing assumptions and expense plans.

The successful candidate will be newly qualified, ACCA / CIMA / ACA with previous expense and FX accounting experience, US GAAP reporting experience and possess strong excel skills.

Responsibilities:

• Developing and maintaining business partner relationships supporting the UK business areas to enable effective cost management.
• UK annual expense budgeting
• Business expense reporting deliverable with input into the Group MI, UK Board reporting, and monthly expense budget variance analysis.

Duties Include:

• Leading monthly expense performance reporting for UK managed areas
• Having input in board presentations and ad hoc expense queries
• Collating annual expense budgets & forecasts for the UK Business
• Building and maintaining relations with designated business areas
• Contributing to the group expense reporting process
• Assisting in UAT of new expense models; providing support to Finance Improvement Project aims
• Assisting with maintenance of data quality and checks of company data as required
• Assisting the Head of UK Financial Planning to meet wider team deliverables.

Experience/Skills Required

• Previous expense accounting experience gained within a finance environment
• Microsoft packages, Word, Outlook, Excel, CODA, Cognos planning

Successful Insurance business requires Expenses Business Partner.

Monthly UK expense budget variance analysis, reporting and general support of UK business areas expenses, annual expense budgeting and group expense reporting.

Responsible for the preparation of annual expense budgets & forecasts in conjunction with the financial planning team as well as Improving quality and quantity of expense reporting.

Take a lead on the roll-out testing of new expense models. 

Responsible for building and maintaining relationships with designated business areas so that needs can be understood and appropriate support given. Managing Expense reporting team.

Our client is looking for a qualified accountant (ACA / ACCA / CIMA) with insurance experience.