The Political Risk Podcast David Benyon

Carbon is tipped to become ‘the next cyber’ for insurance, a future trillion dollar market, as organisations launch net zero projects to curb climate change and trade carbon credits. Most carbon investment comes from the West, but most carbon projects happen in the Global South. This episode features James Kench, head of insurance at Kita, a Lloyd's MGA that insures carbon, and is launching a new political risk product for this beguiling new growth market.

 

A multipolar world meets the weaponization of the global financial system, and the Bretton Woods institutions at the core of the rules/norms-based international order are facing unprecedented challenges. A special episode, in association with Mosaic, featuring Finn McGuirk, Mosaic’s head of political risk, and Maximilian Hess, political risk analyst, principal of Enmetena Advisory, FPRI Fellow and author of ‘Economic War’.

An episode dedicated to political risk and investor confidence in a selection of African territories, featuring Africa Specialty Risks’ head of political risk & trade credit, Genevieve Ahinful, and senior liability underwriter, Tyrone Hopwood. South Africa has a new coalition government. Rwanda is preparing for an election in July. Kenya has debt and supply chain issues. Egypt faces macroeconomic concerns. Ghana goes to the polls in December and faces debt restructuring. Essential listening!

Featuring Tom Clementi, CEO of Pool Re, the UK's government-backed mutual reinsurance fund for terrorism risk. We discuss freshly agreed plans to transform Pool Re's operating model into a treaty reinsurer. Tom also talks about the IFTRIP 2024 international meeting of terrorism pools, hosted by the US Treasury. Cyber reinsurance and the role of government-backed PPPs like Pool Re was on the agenda in DC, and is also the focus of an industry consultation with Pool Re in the UK.

This is a war risk insurance flavoured episode, featuring Michael Burle, head of marine at Liberty Specialty Markets, and Neil Roberts, secretary of the Joint War Committee, and head of marine and aviation at the Lloyd's Market Association. We discuss the Red Sea Crisis of Houthi attacks on shipping, plus Somali piracy activity in the Gulf of Aden, and we also talk about re/insuring Ukrainian war risks, on land and in the Black Sea.

The liberal international order, sometimes called Pax Americana, is in decline, but it's unclear what happens next. In this episode we explore the concept of geopolitical 'interregnum' as a framework for markets and insurers to consider the business environment. Michael Feller is a partner at Geopolitical Strategy, based in Melbourne, who has held senior roles in Australia’s foreign service and prime minister’s department.