The growing complexity of corporate risks has seen the demands placed on insurance brokers fundamentally change.

Speaking to Emerging Risks Christopher Croft, CEO of the London International insurance Brokers’ Association (LIIBA) said the changing nature of risk was putting brokers at the very centre of the risk transfer transaction and is also allowing intermediaries to show the value they deliver.

“What we see is that brokers are becoming risk management consultants rather than simply insurance brokers,” he explained. “They are being tasked with identifying the new risks faced by the clients and delivering the data to enable the market to understand the risks.

“While they will work with those clients to identify the risks and then look at how they can be mitigated this does not simply mean then use of insurance product.

“Take for instance climate risks. There is a real need not for insurance coverage but for resilience. It is not coincidence that the house which was highlighted as having survives the California wildfires in 2024 , had been designed and built by a fire prevention expert.

“There is a need for resilience and to reduce the risks that you are seeking to place before the underwriters.

“There is a real requirement to reduce the volatility within the risk.”

With rising geopolitical tensions, the rapid advance of technology and climate perils risks are becoming more complex, and exposures are increasing but Croft said talk of risks starting to become uninsurable are wide of the mark.

“I do not share the view that any risk is uninsurable there is just the need for a solution to be found that will create a situation where the risk becomes manageable.

“For instance, there is a case of the operators of a wind farm who was seeking to take insurance cover for when there was a lack of wind and with it a loss of earnings. The brokers went away researched the issue and create the first catastrophe model for the offshore wind market.

There has been much talk of the UK financial regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) , placing a renewed focus on the wholesale financial services sector.

As the world’s biggest wholesale insurance market London would be viewed as being in the regulator’s crosshairs, however, Croft said brokers were not being targeted.

“I am delighted to say that insurance brokers are not viewed as part of the wholesale financial services sector by the FCA,” he explained. “What we are keen to see is the work the FCA is doing to differentiate larger commercial business from SME and retail insurance

“We deal with highly sophisticated and knowledgeable clients both in the UK and internationally and that creates a very different relationship to that with retail clients.”