The Chartered Insurance Institute has announced that six firms achieved chartered status in Q1 of this year, having demonstrated their technical competence and commitment to professional standards. In addition, the firms must adhere to the CII Code of Ethics and commit to building trust and ongoing professional development of both their personnel and their business.

Insurtech Marshmallow has raised approximately £70m in Series C funding which values the business at around £1.5bn. Portage Capital led this latest round which was also supported by BlackRock and Columbia Lake Partners. The firm said it would use the investment to expand its proposition beyond motor insurance and to create a broader financial services offering that catered for people’s financial needs.

The Green Insurer has signed a deal with Carbon Neutral Britain which offsets all its customers’ carbon emissions through seven global sustainability projects. The move follows The Green Insurer’s own Carbon Neutral certification last year which demonstrated that it offset all its own operational emissions. The location of the projects ranges from Mongolia and Turkey to Costa Rica and Zambia.

Westfield Specialty International is looking to expand and diversify its portfolio into reinsurance and has hired Chris Gray as divisional director to lead the move. He will be based in London. Westfield Specialty International is backed by Ohio Farmers Insurance Company, which also acquired Lloyd’s Syndicate 1200 in 2023.

Ageas has announced that it will acquire esure from Bain Capital for £1.25bn. The insurer said bringing Ageas UK and esure together would create the third largest personal lines platform in the UK. It said the move would diversify its distribution and give it a strong presence across direct, price comparison website, broker and partnership channels.

Brown & Brown (Europe) Limited, which is part of Brown & Brown Inc has acquired Kenilworth-based Irvine Commercial Insurance Brokers Limited, which was founded in the early 2000s by directors John Townsley and Matthew Finch. It offers a range of covers including motor fleet, commercial combined, combined liability and contractors all risks. The team at Irvine Commercial will continue to work from their current location.

Managing general agent OneBefore has teamed up with insurance provider Pulse Insurance to launch a new product called ‘Travel Well.’ The product is Pulse Insurance’s first proposition for the retail market. It includes options to top-up the cancellation limit to cover high-value trips or to reduce the cover to emergency medical expenses only. The partnership builds on a collaboration last year to launch a medical travel insurance product.

The Broker Investment Group has struck a deal with Andrew Powell to acquire his book of business which adds £1m in gross written premium to the business. The acquisition will be absorbed by Midlands-based The Needham Group which is part of TBIG.

The Fidelis Partnership has appointed Suzanne Wells as chief operating officer. She will join the business in July. She was previously deputy COO of Arch Insurance International. Fidelis has also named Erik Manning as head of ceded reinsurance. He will take up his post later this month.

The Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters has set out plans to revise its membership structure and governance to involve loss adjusting businesses and a wider range of professionals engaged in the loss adjusting process. It said it also wanted to support individuals transitioning from other sectors into loss adjusting. Adam Humphrey, president of CILA set out the plans at a recent meeting in London.

The Clear Group has acquired broker Moore Robinson Limited, which was established 1987 and is based in the City of London. It has a focus on placing and managing property portfolios and construction projects for property investors, developers and managing agents. It also has a team looking after high net worth clients. Founder Robin Moore and his colleagues will join the corporate team at Clear.

Oak Reinsurance has received Lloyd’s approval to increase its 2025 business plan for syndicate 2843 to more than £305m of gross written premium. The carrier said it had resubmitted its original plan after outperforming expectations in the first quarter of the year.

Liberty Specialty Markets has made its capacity available on WTW’s digital trading solution Neuron for D&O and cyber risks. Neuron connects brokers and insurers in real time to enable them to trade risk digitally. WTW plans to increase Neuron’s follow capacity capabilities with additional classes and partners in the coming year.

Covéa Insurance plc has posted a profit after tax of £32.9m for 2024, reversing the loss of £87.3 it recorded in the previous year. The carrier said gross written premium was down from £711.3m (2023) to £641.5m and credited this to its accelerated move away from non-core business during the year. Its combined operating ratio in 2024 of 97.8% was an improvement on the 116.9% achieved in 2023.

The latest Pet Insurance Pricing Index from Pearson Ham Group has found that lifetime policies – the most popular type of pet cover in the UK – are now 1% higher than in March last year. Pearson Ham said there had been a consistent month-on-month increase since November and that the previous falls in the market had now been reversed.

The energy market continues to soften but rests on a “profitability tightrope” as it tries to strike a balance between profit and market share at a time when capacity is at an all high, according to the Energy Market Review published by Willis, a WTW company. In the downstream market, Willis said 2024 had been a benign loss year, but warned that potential losses in Q1 2025 already threatened to exceed those recorded in 2024. In the upstream market a 5% increase in capacity was maintaining downward pressure on premiums.