Castel Underwriting Agencies Limited (Castel), the club-style MGA formation platform, has been short-listed in the Launch of the Year category of the 2014 Insider Honours awards.
According to the judges, they were looking for companies that could demonstrate success in contributing to the global (re)insurance market in its short lifetime and prove the efficacy of the launch and the level of innovation and originality in the underlying business strategy and tangible and effective measurement of success within the context of profitable growth.
Castel’s contribution to the market began in October 2013. Its aim is to provide experienced and entrepreneurial underwriters with an innovative fast-track route to creating their own profitable businesses.
To deliver this, Castel combines long-term stable capacity from Lloyd’s, the London company and international insurance markets with a comprehensive infrastructure including experienced management, scalable IT, creative marketing and sound regulatory, risk management and corporate governance practices – in short, Castel turns underwriters’ concepts into trading reality, quickly.
The success of this approach was also affirmed at the beginning of 2014 with the launch of Altitude Risk Partners (Altitude), its first underwriting cell. Altitude is now underwriting a worldwide portfolio of quality aerospace related risks.
Mark Birrell, CEO of Castel said: “Castel’s award nomination is a strong market endorsement of both our unique club-style collaborative platform and the credibility already created by the launch of Altitude Risk Partners. The Castel team has worked incredibly hard to start this business and being short-listed in this very tough and highly competitive category clearly shows our innovative approach has been well received by our peers.”
The other companies short-listed for the Launch of the Year award are Kinesis Capital Management, Peak Re and Asta for the launch of Dale Underwriting Partners Syndicate 1729. The winner will be announced at the Insider Honours event on 11th September.