With an increase in terrorist attacks and a shifting in the political environment over the past few years, terrorism has been in the spotlight across the insurance market.

Last month, we hosted an intimate round table event for some of our brokers with former Met Police Chief, Lord Bernard Hogan-Howe; our CEO, Paul Dilley; and our Political Violence expert, Marcus Meredith to discuss Terrorism and Emerging threats.

Lord Bernard led the Metropolitan police through, arguably, their most testing time in decades; with the national threat level set as ‘severe’, he has witnessed first-hand the rise in terror threats to the UK. In addition, our own Marcus Meredith’s background as an Army Officer working for the UK Ministry of Defence and his wealth of experience in political violence MGA underwriting for both local and international territories made for a very interesting and engaging conversation, offering a unique perspective to those in attendance.

The events of last year and the recent BBC press article questioning whether 2017 was the worst year for UK terrorism, made this a very timely event.

In 2017, there were 400 terror arrests in the UK alone, with around 20,000 persons of interest on the radar of the counter terrorism team. The scale, along with the evolving nature of these threats highlight the risks that businesses face and the urgent need to create improved solutions for insurance cover.

This was emphasised after the Borough Market (Southwark, London) attacks in June last year. The local businesses were left vulnerable to revenue losses after being forced to close their stalls for 10 days due to police closure of the venue for gathering forensic evidence. As the premises did not sustain any physical damage caused by the attack, many of these businesses found themselves with a crucial gap in income from trading, and the ensuing drop in revenue caused by the loss of attraction to the market.

As a response, Geo Specialty has created a bespoke offering to address this by providing wider coverage for clients, including business interruption and loss of attraction cover which are significant gaps in the current government-backed, Poole Re, offering.

You can find more information on the Geo Specialty’s Political Violence offering here, or contact our expert, Marcus Meredith, for a quote.

Marcus.meredith@geospecialty.co.uk

07990511995