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Mark Colegate: Kelly Whittington is Commercial Lines Claims Director at Aviva. She joins me now. Well, Kelly, tell us a bit about the team and your role in it.

Kelly Whittington: Yeah, sure. So the claims team is quite a big team. We've got three call centres across the UK. We've got our team in Norwich who look after motor claims, our team in Perth looking after property claims. And then we've got our team in Glasgow looking after our casualty claims and then that's coupled with a number of home workers like our loss adjusters where we've got national coverage up and down the UK. And of course, we've then got all of our own body shops that sit across the UK as well as we've got 21 sites who are taking in vehicles to get them repaired to enable customers to get back on the road after an accident. So it's a really big team. And then my role as part of that is to look after our commercial motor and our commercial property teams and alongside that, I'm also responsible for looking after our claims service managers who spend their time out with clients and brokers seeking feedback about how we're showing up and what we can do to improve the service that we're offering day to day.

Mark Colegate: And what have been the main developments in this part of the business so far this year?

Kelly Whittington: Yeah, so it's been a busy time in claims, actually. We've been doing a lot of recruitment. The business across Aviva is growing, which is great news. But so far this year, it's seen us recruit nearly 700 roles and that's a mixture of replacing roles where people have left to new opportunities but also recruiting for the growth that we've seen. We've seen about 25% of those roles have been as a result of needing to - people who have gone on to get other opportunities within Aviva, which is great. But then we've also needed to grow the business to make sure that we're ready to deal with claims for the business growth that we've seen. As a result of that, we have had some service challenges in some of our areas and so we've been working really hard to get things back on track, and we're really pleased with the progress that we're making in that space. We have got a bit more work to do but there's certainly been a lot of work to get us to where we are today. And we've also been taking on board a lot of the feedback that we've been getting from our brokers about where else we can improve and so as a result of that we’ve had a few initiatives that we're really pleased with. We have launched a new commercial vehicle repair network, and that enables us to service commercial vehicles, get them repaired in our own network. That was some feedback that we'd heard loud and clear was causing problems and pain points for customers. And we've also been growing the capability of our team and investing in areas such as counter fraud. We've been investing in our commercial property operating model and growing more loss adjusters. So it's been a very, very busy time, but lots of exciting developments.

Mark Colegate: Anything on the automation front?

Kelly Whittington: So, yes, we've started to do some work on digital, not necessarily full automation as such. But what we have done is we've revised some of the where people can service themselves and through our claims portal. And so hopefully brokers have started to see that that's now available on our Fast Trade platform. That's a platform that's used every day, in the broker's offices, and that makes it a lot easier. And that has seen us see some improvements in the number of customers that are getting their updates and their management information about how claims are doing themselves through the self-serve portal. And there are some further enhancements coming to that portal as we look later into the year.

Mark Colegate: What are some of the trends that you're seeing in the broader economy in industry in the realm that are that are having an impact on claims right now?

Kelly Whittington: Yeah, I mean, it's something that we have to keep our eye on all of the time. I think, you know, through the Covid period, we saw a lot, from a claims inflation point of view and we're still seeing some impacts from that. Areas that are particularly on our mind around labour. We do see that there's a shortage of labour, across the market and that is therefore meaning that the cost of labour is going up. And that's probably the one thing that's still keeping us a little bit awake at night. But some of the things that we're trying to do to combat that is, investing in capability now. We are growing the amount of apprentices that we work with, we're growing the capability that we have in-house so that we can mitigate some of the risk. But undoubtedly, that is definitely something that is on our mind. And then you couple that with some of the other trends that we're seeing on things like the growth of the electric vehicles that are out there, and the repairing of those, that needs to be in the forefront of our minds. So if I could focus on electric vehicles, I think that is something that we are starting to see more and more. And actually, a lot of those repairs are very different in the way that we need to go about looking after or servicing those repairs. So one of the things that that we're doing is I mentioned earlier our 21 Solus sites. We continue to grow the number of sites that we have across the UK so that we've got more capacity and more capability protected for Aviva customers. And as part of that, we're also training all of our technicians so that they are able to deal with those electric repairs.

Mark Colegate: And what's the next set of deliverables for brokers and clients that you're going to be focusing on?

Kelly Whittington: So quite a lot of this year so far, we've spent, building quite a few foundations on things. So one of the things that we will be ready to launch more on a broader scale by the end of the year will be the integration of our systems into one of the key software houses that a number of our broker partners work with. We think that's going to be a great opportunity because what that will enable brokers to do is get more regular updates on claims. By the end of this year then we're hoping that we'll be in a position that many more brokers will be able to tap into that so that's certainly a focus area. We're also investing a lot in claims. So I talked about the recruitment that we've done alongside that recruitment we're also looking at how we use the technology that's available out there to help with getting quicker, more consistent good customer outcomes in terms of, for instance, how we value a total loss. If someone's involved in a motor accident - how we could quicken up the liability decisions? So we've been building a lot of those this year, and by the end of this year, we'll see all of those starting to embed into our teams. So what I'd hope that our brokers and our clients start to see is us making quicker decisions in a more consistent way and helping get claims settled quicker.

Mark Colegate: And are there any longer-term predictions you've got for just what's going to be going on in the claims space over the next few years?

Kelly Whittington: Well so I think linked now but also what could be coming over the next few years - underinsurance is really on our minds. That is a market-wide concern. And in some recent surveys that we have undertaken about three-quarters of our brokers are concerned that customers may not have adequate insurance. I think that's a real concern when it then comes to claim stage because of course, that's when we'll potentially sort of start to see that biting and reputationally for the industry I think it's really important that we work together to try and solve that. That's both in terms of the actual sums insured that people have got, around their business interruption, but also the indemnity period that qualifies. So I think that it's something we've started to see a little bit of showing up now but it's something that we want to try and mitigate showing up on a broader scale. So tapping into tools that we've built, such as our commercial intelligence tool, which enables people to get adequate insurance upfront, I think, is something we're trying to mitigate. We've also got the whole world of Gen AI, which is on our minds and I think from a claims perspective, we've had a number of experiments happening in that space really focused on internally how we make ourselves more efficient and this is about complementing that tech with the human aspect of the role. So we've been trialling things such as how we can summarise notes in a much more succinct way to save that whole 'Please bear with me while I'm on hold'. So we're experimenting with lots of things in that space, and I expect longer term, then we'll start to see some of those coming into fruition. So I think what we like to pride ourselves on in Aviva claims is that we want to hear the feedback. We want to then work on that together to try and improve that. So partnership is going to be key, and that will remain regardless. There are lots of opportunities for us to work more together. I’ve talked about the underinsurance and how we can do more in that space and that I think is a great initiative for us to go away with. I think the other thing I would say is that in the motor space, there's lots of opportunity to work together as well where we can get claims notified to us in a more timely fashion and actually just last week, we launched some videos that will hopefully help brokers with educating clients about the importance of that. We're going to run some claims events that happen across the UK through October. We'd love to see lots of people coming along to those to really explore where are there other opportunities for us to work better together. But for me, that's all about partnership. And so we need to keep that two-way dialogue going. Let's keep hearing where are we showing up well. Where can we improve? And then how do we solve those problems together? So I really look forward to taking forward some of those initiatives.

Mark Colegate: Kelly Whittington. Thank you.

Kelly Whittington: Thank you.

MARK: Vicky Kent is Head of the Renewable energy team at Aviva, she joins me now. Vicky, can you start by telling us a little bit about the book of business and the team that you're responsible for?

VICKY: Sure Mark. So Aviva made the decision back in 2019 to exit the fossil fuel power generation market and instead refocus on the renewable energy market. So the book's been up and running now for about five or six years. It's growing significantly. It's grown in the right way. We're now about five times the size. The portfolio is about five times the size of the fossil fuel book that we exit back in 2019. And also along with that, we've grown the underwriting team. So we went from two of us back in 2019. We are now a team of 11 dedicated renewable energy underwriters. And then also we've positioned ourselves well as a lead market in that time. And to support that, we've grown out our risk engineering team. So we now have four dedicated specialists, renewable energy risk engineers within the Aviva risk management solutions team.

MARK: Renewables encompasses is a pretty broad range of technology. So what are your main specialisms within that?

VICKY: So our core appetite technology wise is onshore and offshore wind, solar PV and battery energy storage. We mainly work with large global corporate clients and we offer cover for the lifecycle of a project. So from the marine cargo to the constructional risks, including DSU, the operational risks, including B.I, the third party liabilities and also terrorism if needed.

MARK: Looking back on 2024 so far, what have been the key deliverables for you and the team?

VICKY: We've had a really busy 2024 so far. We've had a very productive H1. We're always looking at ways that we can expand our appetite to support our clients, to support the net zero transition and also Aviva’s own sustainability ambitions. So if I take us back a little bit to 2023, the beginning of 23, we moved into the offshore wind space. Again, this is to support our existing renewable energy clients in their needs. And we've brought underwriters in to do that. We've also brought, we've extended the capabilities within our risk management team. We've brought someone in specifically from the offshore wind industry who has got experience in cables and also marine warranty surveying, which is great because that positions us well to be a strong leader in the offshore wind space like we are in the onshore renewable space.

MARK: And so what's been the reaction from brokers and their clients have lost 12 to 18 months?

VICKY: Very positive. They are, I mean as projects get bigger and more complex, they're happy to see more capacity coming into the space and also capacity that is committed to this area and investing in the people to support their growth.

MARK: So that's a recent decision to stamp your mark on one part of this market, but what are some of the other technologies that you're now beginning to look up and build capacity in?

VICKY: Yes, so the beginning of 2024 we expanded further into sort of broader wider, what we call and green energy technologies, but essentially more renewable energy technologies such as green hydrogen, hydroelectric, geothermal, biomass, concentrated solar.

MARK: One thing that's always in the headlines of this is whole issue about electric vehicles. There's never enough charging points. Does that sort of cross your desk as a topic?

VICKY: It absolutely does. There needs to be a better EV charging point infrastructure within the UK if we're going to move away from petrol and diesel vehicles to electric vehicles. We recognize this and we build a product in the UK and EV charging point product and this year, following really the ask from our brokers and our clients to offer a solution for overseas exposures. We've built an international EV charging point product to cater for this.

MARK: But with all of this really rapid change going on in the market, how do you make sure that your policy documents, your wording are completely up to the minute in sort of reflecting the latest thinking and trends and developments in the market?

VICKY: So something else we've done this year and we released these to our brokers earlier on in 2024 was produce, well, update really, the Aviva wind solar and battery energy storage were to make them suitable for use with our international clients. And really, as a lead market, it's fitting that we have our own wording offering. We've not done anything. There's nothing that's nothing crazy whether it is in keeping with sort of coverage our clients are used to. But the idea is to make sure that the cover is clear for our clients.

MARK: We've had a recent change in government here in the UK very keen on wind power, particularly on shore. So what is the significance of that for Aviva?

VICKY: It's very positive, it's fantastic news. And Aviva have got this ambition to be the number one insurer of renewable energy assets in the UK. So that clearly aligns nicely with our own goals. And of course, as well, the UK is a core market for Aviva. So we're well positioned as a leader, as already mentioned, and we can continue to be a competitive lead insurer for those clients looking to develop projects in the UK. And then also additionally, I believe we have the largest specialist risk management team for renewable energy in the UK, which means we're well positioned to talk to our clients and engage with them early. And even new developers, people we don't have a relationship yet with yet, we welcome discussions with those and early engagement is key.

MARK: And what would you say the main challenges that brokers in the market as a whole are facing in this space?

VICKY: Well, I think clearly there's a lot of growth and there's a lot of opportunity in the renewable energy space, which is great news, it's very positive. But I think it's critical that the insurance community continues to invest in its people and also bring new talent into the market so that we have the capacity and the resource to be able to deal with this growth. So there are several challenges within the renewables market, which brokers, clients and insurers are facing and we have to face them together. But now we have agent technology issues, obsolete technology issues. And then conversely, we've got the power race. So new technology being developed very quickly, new wind turbine models being brought to market very quickly, much larger. The scale, the complexity of projects is increasing, supply chain issues that they haven't gone away. We have Chinese technology coming into market now, coming outside of the Chinese market that we need to learn about and understand. And then of course, whether related incidents, the severity and the frequency of weather events globally is increasing and whether that's flood or wind storm or hail or tornado or wildfire. These are all challenges that the insurance market and the renewables industry is having to deal with. And then equally, we have, there's an influx of capacity, insurance capacity coming into the market. And while that can make the insurance market challenging for insurers already in that space, it's also a positive thing, as mentioned, with the challenges we're facing. It's a good thing that this capacity is coming in. And from my perspective, it's coming in as a follow market capacity behind leaders such as Aviva who are more technical and positioned to lead.

MARK: Well, there's obviously a huge amount going on in this market. So if you had a piece of advice for a broker that's thinking about getting involved in this market, what would it be?

VICKY: Partnership, I'd say. I think it's really important that brokers and clients and insurers are partnering and sharing knowledge and expertise. And at Aviva, we've got one of the largest underwriting teams and risk management teams in the London market. So please come and talk to us, have a conversation and engage with usearly. We're very happy to support.

MARK: We have to leave it there. Vicky Kent, thank you. Thank you. 

Mark Colegate: Michael Yabantu is Managing Director of the Mid-Market business at Aviva. He joins me now. Michael, can you start by telling us a little bit about the team and your role within that?

Michael Yabantu: Yeah, sure. So Mid-Market for us is client, commercial clients up to 250 million turnover that we trade through our regional branch network. So that's 22 distinct geographies, but 14 physical offices across the UK. And we trade in excess of a billion pounds of premium, 550 staff across 13 different lines of business.

Mark Colegate: And this year, what have been the main improvements or the key deliverables that you've achieved?

Michael Yabantu: Yeah, this year's been really centred around, we've really been focused and responding to three things. It's been about visibility with our brokers and customers. Being responsive to be able to deliver the best service and executing on the promises that we make, really to be able to deliver the best products, the best service and the best outcomes for our customers. So in response to that, we've done a number of things. We've simplified our local branch structure. So we've brought together key disciplines across underwriting, claims, client and distribution. So every branch has a branch manager, a senior broker development manager, a claims service manager, and a client relationship manager. And that's really about giving brokers and customers access to that capability. Locally where they want to be served and accessed. We've also segregated our new business and renewal teams. And that's been really to allow them to deliver the best service in each of those areas. Alongside that, we continue to invest in our branch networks. So we've opened three new offices this year in Southampton, in Chelmsford, and a new office in Glasgow. So expanding our city centre presence. And again, that's about visibility being closer to our brokers and customers. We also have continued to invest in our people as well. So we've brought in new and additional capability in underwriting and in distribution. And alongside that, we've deployed in excess of 200 technical authority increases that really allows our frontline teams to make sure that they've got the appropriate authority. And our brokers and customers have got access to decision-makers, which we know is incredibly important. And then lastly, for data, AI and technology, we've continued to invest in those areas. And that's really been about ensuring that we can deliver efficiencies into the underwriting process, trading the most effective way with our brokers, and also delivering as much insight as we can so that our brokers and customers are as informed as they can be about the risk protection that they need.

Mark Colegate: And what would you say the main challenges that brokers are facing right now? And how do you go about working out what those are?

Michael Yabantu: Yeah, I mean, we commissioned a survey actually a few months ago across 250 brokers to understand exactly what are the key challenges that they're faced with. And there were three key headlines that came out of that. 83% of brokers said that they were focused on growing their businesses. The majority of brokers said that Insurer service across the market was the number one challenge for them. And equally the majority of the responses said that visibility and face-to-face meetings with insurers was one of the key solutions to be able to combat some of the service challenges. So we've made some great progress in that space based on some of the things that I mentioned before Mark, but some of the proof points and some of the data that we're seeing coming through as a result of some of those deliveries. We can see from a new business perspective, we're not only up in revenue, but we've written more new business customers than we had done last year, but also the breadth of trades that we're writing is far bigger than it was before. So we're really deploying as much of our appetite to brokers and customers. 93% of our renewals are going out at least 28 days in advance so getting them out early to engage in those conversations in a timely fashion. We've seen some great improvements in our telephony stats and we've also seen a 25% increase in our external engagement with brokers and customers. So a number of areas where we've made some significant improvements, but clearly there's still plenty more of opportunities for us to improve and be more consistent across the UK.

Mark Colegate: Well, on that point, what's the next set of key deliverables for you?

Michael Yabantu: Yeah, look, we absolutely continue into invest in the business this year and over the next few years. Some of the things that you can expect to see from us in the near future. So we will have a new Mid-Market multinational proposition launching by the end of this year and that's the ability to be able to provide solutions to customers that have got both UK and overseas exposures. We'll continue to refresh some of our existing products and we'll also look to invest in new capability and continue to develop specialisms in certain areas in response to broker feedback. And then lastly, from an underinsurance perspective because we know that 50% in excess of 50% of clients still remain underinsured in some capacity. So, you know, continues to be an industry challenge. We'll continue to invest in more data, in more insights so we can provide as much of that information to brokers and customers and continue to educate about the challenges around under insurance and why adequate protection is so important. So lots more exciting things to come from us.

Mark Colegate: And if there were a broker set in this chair, not me, what would you want to say to them?

Michael Yabantu: I'd say a huge thanks for your ongoing support. We really value the partnership and relationships that we have. I'd say secondly, please continue to give us your feedback. That's incredibly important. It helps us understand what's working well and what we can do to improve. And lastly, I'd say if there's anything that I've spoken about that sounds new or unfamiliar, then please reach out to your local teams, engage with us, talk to us and let's sit down and work out how we can trade more effectively together.

Mark Colegate: We have to leave it there, Michael Yabantu. Thank you.

Michael Yabantu: Thank you.

Mark Colegate:

Hello and welcome to Aviva Leader Insights.

I'm Mark Colgate and I'm joined today by Ramesh Singh. He is Underwriting Director Financial Lines UK at the group. Ramesh, first of all, tell us a little bit about your role and what's your definition of financial lines?

Ramesh Singh:

Yeah, absolutely Mark. You know, so the role is really the Underwriting Director role for Financial Lines, scopes and multiple number of products that falls under the umbrella of Financial Lines. So that includes your traditional financial lines products such as Financial Institutions, Directors and Officers Liability, Professional Indemnity, Crime and Cyber. It does extend through to some of the special aligns like Mergers and Acquisitions and Surety and Legal Indemnity.

Mark Colegate:

You took on the job, I think the start of 2024. So you've had about five months there. What's your analysis really around what you've inherited and what you've put at the top of the to-do list?

Ramesh Singh:

Yeah, five or six months into the business. It's an incredibly exciting and energetic environment right now. There's a lot on the table in regards to what Aviva wants to achieve in this Financial Lines practice. You know, what I found that there was a lot of incredibly strong underlying talent, but what we've done is rebuilt a lot of the team over my tenure. And what this means that we've brought in decades more experience than what we had historically. And that's really a commitment of where we're driving this business moving forward. So I think there's an incredible opportunity for us to keep expanding that footprint that we have, but also how we're looking to try and engage with the market.

Mark Colegate:

More resources and experience, but what are some of the areas that you're applying that to? I mean, is it about the types of risks you're underwriting?

Ramesh Singh:

There's an incredible opportunity with the Aviva brand. The footprint that we have in the regional UK space, especially in that SME mid-market penetration that we have, we're building that out. But I think we've got opportunity to counterbalance that. With the talent that we have within the business, we are looking to write complex risk. We can be a very competitive part in that primary, first excess space to make sure that we've got a good balance of portfolios we grow out. And that's gonna be really supported by the opportunity now that's pending of a dual platform business model moving forward. And that's company and Lloyds.

Mark Colegate:

And in terms of the big economic and macro backdrop, what are some of the things that you're seeing out there in the wider economy that's having an impact on financial lines, on insurers, brokers and that clients?

Ramesh Singh:

It's a very, very fluid macro economic environment right now. You know, seldom do we have a front-page news article or a television piece on what's happening in the wider economy. We're seeing a lot of noise around where interest rates are heading, with the anticipation of the Bank of England over the summer, maybe reducing those rates. And that should anticipate some potential industry growth or initiatives now moving forward. Notwithstanding that, we've seen inflationary impacts over the last number of years, increasing, and just recent news about some inflationary drops. And they're good economic signs that we're into recovery mode now. So I think there's a lot of opportunity for businesses now to start anticipating growth, and they really need to be supported by a good, well-risk managed insurance program.

Mark Colegate:

But even if rates and inflation do start to come down, I guess a lot of brokers in their clients would say, fine, but we've had a sustained period where rates and inflation have been higher for longer. And those accumulated stresses and strains do have an impact. So what would you say as some of the, as you're out talking to brokers, some of their biggest pain points are at the moment, and how can Aviva help?

Ramesh Singh:

We really do want to address the commitment and the longevity of some of the insurance products that we have within the business and within the industry. So we need to ensure that we're giving that stability in the confidence to our client base, that we're here for the long term, that we can grow out these products. But also, ancillary to just the product itself is really the support network that we can provide. So through our strategic risk management teams, how can we engage with the client from a wider perspective of balancing those forward-going risks, whether that be economic or directly within their industry base? So I think there's a much stronger position for a business like ourselves to support a client outside of just the pure insurance product itself.

Mark Colegate:

Taking a peek into the future, anything that you've specific that you've got ready to roll out to the broker market from Aviva's financial lines business?

Ramesh Singh:

Well, firstly, I think that core opportunity for us to be able to manage complex risk and really serve as a client the way they need to in the anticipation of a changing economic environment. The breadth of the product scope really does mean that we don't have the requirement to focus on one single product. We can deliver a product from A to Z across an industry space or an individual client. So really the opportunity for clients to depend on and ensure that can provide a broad product range to service their business. And that's really now going to be accelerated by the multi- platform opportunity that we have within company and Lloyd. So international exposures, the way they want to, industries or businesses want to grow their individual footprints, we can service that business now in a very different way. So that will wind the scope of appetite or business that we have within the Aviva Financial Lines franchise.

Mark Colegate:

We have to leave it there. Ramesh Singh, thank you.

Ramesh Singh:

Great, thank you very much, Mark.

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