Oak’s Carr on Lloyd’s revival and building a modern reinsurance franchise

Oak Global Chief Executive Officer Cathal Carr explains why Lloyd’s is central to global reinsurance, and why tech and culture matter as much as capital to build a new reinsurer.

For several years, a prevailing narrative in the re/insurance world was that Lloyd’s of London had lost much of its edge as a reinsurance platform, competing with the company market and rival hubs across the globe.

That situation has since been transformed, according to Cathal Carr, Chief Executive of Oak Global, speaking on the latest episode of the Voice of Insurance podcast.

As the leader of a startup Lloyd’s reinsurer, he believes that previous view of Lloyd’s misses out on what was quietly changing beneath the surface.

Carr is the founder of Oak Global, a new Lloyd’s-based reinsurer underwriting global reinsurance and retrocession, and one of a growing cohort of executives using the Lloyd’s platform to build a modern reinsurance business.

Before founding Oak and taking the plunge to “back himself”, Carr had spent two decades at RenaissanceRe, working in Bermuda as its global head of property catastrophe, and later chief underwriting officer for Europe.

“I always felt there would be a point where I would want to start a business from the ground up, but there were three macro reasons that made the timing feel right,” Carr said.

The first was the rating environment, which was weak after so many softening years.

From the market lows of 2017, Carr points to a steady and compounded improvement in pricing, with treaty reinsurance rates increasing by more than 100 percent through to the reset from 2023.

“That creates a healthy environment to engage and try to start a reinsurance business,” he said.

The second factor he describes is the Lloyd’s market itself.

Carr argues that Lloyd’s historic share of global reinsurance placements, once close to a third, had fallen too far, creating an opportunity for new entrants with the right leadership and focus.

“When we looked at building a Lloyd’s syndicate, we felt the opportunity was there to bring that leadership back to the market. It was also aligned with what Lloyd’s leadership was trying to achieve,” he said.

The third driver was conviction around long-term demand, which underpins which lines of business the startup focuses on.

Oak has organised its underwriting strategy around four risk pillars: climate risk, technological risk, geopolitical risk and economic risk.

“These are areas where demand exists today and where we believe it will grow over the next five, ten and twenty years,” Carr said.

“Our ambition is to be a global risk partner, known for market-leading underwriting expertise and client-focused solutions,” he added.

Oak received permission to underwrite at Lloyd’s in late November and quickly moved from launch to execution.

Despite having only five weeks left in its first year of account, the syndicate exceeded its initial expectations, he explained.

“We had a business plan of $300m of premium for 2025. We were ahead of plan post 1 January and ultimately increased that to $400m,” Carr said.

The portfolio now spans about 400 clients globally, split roughly 50:50 between property and specialty lines, including marine, energy, terrorism, cyber, credit and climate innovation products, including parametric covers.

Carr is particularly emphatic about the role of Lloyd’s in that success. He doesn’t play it down as easy, but highlights the discipline inherent within the process and the value brought by Lloyd’s access.

“Our engagement with Lloyd’s was extremely positive. The process is rigorous, but it was responsive and efficient, and the ratings upgrades have been a huge advantage,” he said.

He also points to the depth of talent and distribution within the Lloyd’s ecosystem.

“The broader ecosystem here, clients, brokers, distribution partners, that has been pivotal,” he said.

“We genuinely feel Lloyd’s is a great platform to launch and grow a reinsurance business,” he continued.

Oak has already built a team of 50 people in its first year, including 20 underwriters, with a deliberate strategy of where it hires from to avoid monocultures, Carr explained.

“We have a maximum of two people from any one previous employer. That diversity of perspective is critical if you are trying to build something genuinely different,” Carr said.

Technology is another core pillar for the startup business.

Starting with a clean slate has allowed Oak to avoid legacy systems, but Carr is cautious about over-engineering too early, conscious that today’s internally developed tool can become tomorrow’s drag as a legacy system to maintain.

“We don’t want to create technical debt quickly, so the focus is on combining best-in-class tools with our own intellectual property, and making sure our data infrastructure is future-proof,” he said.

That includes preparing for some more advanced uses of artificial intelligence.

“We don’t see AI as replacing underwriters, but as an interface that can help them access tools, data and insights more effectively, it could become a real differentiator,” he suggested.

Quizzed on future ambitions, such as expansion to Bermuda or other market hubs, and what’s next for his entrepreneurial streak, he was keen to keen to keep things grounded.

“This is a decades-long project,” he said. “You can’t be an overnight success in reinsurance. We need to prove ourselves over time, but our ambition is to create something with true franchise value.”