This month has seen the launch of Fiducia’s new Fine art and Specie facility, further enhancing the company’s underwriting capabilities. The targeted areas initially include SME operations focusing primarily on Fine Art and Specie which includes Private Collections, Exhibitions, Dealers and Precious Metals.

The facility will be rolled out to the company’s partner brokers providing them with a product which will enable them to access a growing and lucrative market in the UK and beyond.

Backed by Lloyd’s Syndicates, the facility will enable Fiducia to deploy up to a maximum liability or sums insured of $10 million ( circa £8 million) per risk. It comes following a rigorous approval process and the creation of a product and wordings designed to support brokers who have never looked at this class of business previously.

The facility will also allow International Cargo Business to be written for risks located in the USA (on a surplus lines basis) and Switzerland. Reinsurance on a Worldwide basis is also permitted unless limited by International Sanctions.

Fiducia Underwriter James Bavin explains: “At Fiducia, we have established a suite of market leading and well recognised cargo covers and the fine art and specie facility was a natural extension of our underwriting operations.

“Like all our products the choice of partners was extremely important and we are delighted to have been able to secure capacity from two leading Lloyd’s syndicates who share not only our risk appetite, but also our focus on the delivery of the highest quality service levels.”

“We are keen to work with brokers who may not have thought of fine art and specie as a business in which they can participate. We are keen to work with our broker partners to access their client base to highlight the risks they face and the cover we can provide.”

Fine art and specie has always been seen as a sought after class of business but Fiducia and its capacity providers have identified there is a real opportunity for brokers as the approach from the major national and international brokers has shifted in respect of SME clients.

“We are increasingly seeing national brokers / underwriting entities looking to put minimum premium levels in place which has created a market of those clients which are not of a scale to meet the criteria,” James says. “As such it presents an opportunity for our regional broker partners. All they have required is a product and we are pleased to be able to provide them with a scheme which allows them to make the most of the opportunities.”

Fiducia will now be contacting its brokers to explain how they can help to access fine art and specie risks.

The new facility enables Fiducia to underwrite risks in the UK, US, Switzerland and business placed on a Reinsurance basis but the primary focus at present will be the UK.