Corporate Responsibility
At Lancashire, we value our relationships and believe that success is unlikely to be achieved without a significant amount of effort put into those relationships. These relationships encompass brokers, employees, regulators, rating agencies, the community, analysts and others. All such relationships are highly valued.
Brokers
It is difficult to overstate the importance of broker and customer relationships. Our business is almost all transacted through brokers. Brokers need to know that insurers of their clients have excellent financial strength, a thorough understanding of the risks at hand, and a willingness and ability to provide first class service. Lancashire strives to meet all of these requirements handily. More than ever we are placing greater emphasis on marketing, which we believe will continue to afford us access to virtually all major risks placed in the market in the classes underwritten by Lancashire.
Employees
We strive to have the best employees in the industry. We expect our employees to work hard but we reward them accordingly. A whole range of benefits are offered to permanent staff members in all jurisdictions, which include: pensions; private healthcare and contributions to gym memberships.
We also believe that as many employees as possible should become shareholders in Lancashire. This creates great team spirit and has been a huge part of our success to date.
Appropriate training is offered to all employees with comprehensive training being provided internally and additional training being sought from external providers. Employees are encouraged to select and attend appropriate external courses at the Group’s expense.
We take staff retention seriously as we think that staff who understand our business are best placed to ensure Lancashire’s continued success. We monitor staff attrition numbers at Board level.
Regulators
We place high importance on our relationship with regulators and we monitor changes in regulatory requirements closely. Both our Bermuda insurance operations (regulated by the Bermuda Monetary Authority (BMA)) and our UK insurance operations (regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA)) were subject to routine regulatory reviews in 2007. We believe the results from each inspection to be satisfactory. Our marketing company in Dubai is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).
Lancashire has also obtained eligibility as an excess and surplus lines insurer in many U.S. states, but is not a licensed insurer in any US state or territory.
Rating Agencies
Lancashire enjoys a positive relationship with rating agencies. The Group has a financial strength rating of A minus (Excellent) with a stable outlook from A.M. Best. This rating is sufficient to allow the Group to trade successfully in all the major global insurance markets.
Lancashire’s shares are admitted to the Official List of the UK Listing Authority and admitted to trading on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol LRE.L
Political Donations
The Group did not make any political donations or expenditure during 2009 or 2008.
