2010-07-06
By Editor, CIR
Following the restructuring of its European business, Chartis has announced that its new headquarters will be situated in London. This includes Chartis Insurance UK Limited, Chartis Insurance Ireland Limited and Chartis Europe SA.
As part of this reorganisation, Lex Baugh will be named CEO of Chartis Europe SA, replacing Julio Portalatin, who is the new president and chief executive officer of the emerging markets division of Chartis International.
Baugh commented, “The main reasons for structuring our European business in this way are to facilitate a pan-European solution for the preparation of Solvency II; to better support and empower local underwriters and to benefit from a more efficient structure. It will also help to position us for the proposed creation of a single UK domiciled Pan-European insurer. However I would emphasise that as far as our brokers and clients are concerned there is no change to the way we operate in each country. The same teams will continue to deliver their expert underwriting and claims handling as they do now.”
“Basing the Headquarters in London does offer considerable benefits. London is an extremely important market in the world context and is the European operational centre for many of the international brokers. In addition, we expect to benefit from the UK FSA’s experience and role in the use of capital models in our preparation towards Solvency II.”
Country operations will report into one of three managing directors depending on geographical location. The newly appointed managing directors will report to Lex Baugh.
James Shea, previously regional president for Chartis CECIS, is managing director of Chartis UK and will be responsible for the operation within the UK which is supervised by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) .
Ralph Brand, previously COO of Chartis Europe SA is managing director of Chartis Northern Europe and will be responsible for the operations in Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland.
Nicolas Aubert, previously managing director of France, is managing director of Chartis Southern Europe and will be responsible for the operations in Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Romania and Spain.
Brand and Aubert will remain members of the management board of Chartis Europe SA, which is supervised by the French insurance regulator, Autorité de contrôle prudentiel (ACP).
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