The International Underwriting Association (IUA) has set out a tighter strategic agenda for the London company market as it moves into 2026, announcing senior operational changes, a market‑grade clauses library, and a NextGen training initiative aimed at shoring up underwriting and claims capability.
Chris Jones (pictured), who became IUA chief executive in May 2025, frames the priorities as protecting London’s “underwriting and claims expertise,” developing a centralised NextGen education programme called IUA Futures, and creating a cross‑class response to emerging systemic risks such as cyber, AI and climate. “London as a global hub lives or dies by its underwriting and claims expertise,” Jones writes in the association’s Annual Review 2025.
The IUA has restructured its leadership to provide more day‑to‑day technical backing for members. In 2025 it created a director of underwriting (Tom Hughes) and a director of claims (Joe Shaw). The association said the appointments are intended to deliver more focused support for underwriting and claims teams and to promote consistent market practice.
Among the IUA’s tangible outputs this year is a new online library of model insurance and reinsurance clauses containing more than 1,000 items, designed to speed drafting and promote consistency in policy wordings. The IUA also published a white paper on emerging risks, a joint cyber business interruption report with Baker Tilly, guidance on subscription market brokerage and new Claims Agreement Practices aimed at harmonising claims handling across the company market.
The Claims Agreement Practices - voluntary contractual provisions developed by the IUA Claims Strategy Committee - were launched at an event attended by more than 100 insurers and brokers. The association also established a new Construction and Engineering Claims Committee and a NextGen Claims Committee to support practitioner development.
The IUA continues to play a central role in the market’s digitisation programme under Blueprint Two and the transition to new processing services. It has helped prepare an Exit Plan for legacy processing contracts, supported governance work with Velonetic, and taken part in efforts to move the market to common data standards such as the Core Data Record aligned with ACORD — key infrastructure for electronic placement and automated processing.
The IUA says its public policy team analysed 43 consultations in 2025 and submitted 18 formal responses, covering issues from captive insurance regulation and FCA rule reform to the Financial Ombudsman review and proposals on non‑financial misconduct. A notable intervention saw the IUA argue against lowering the threshold for publishing ongoing regulatory investigations, warning that premature publication could cause market speculation and harm D&O availability.
A flagship initiative this year was IUA Futures, a programme to support early‑career practitioners through targeted training, peer engagement and “taster” simulations with partners including the Lloyd’s Market Association. The IUA ran 59 education and training events in 2025 — including 22 technical sessions, 12 networking breakfasts and several masterclasses — and reports roughly 2,500 attendees across its programme.
Membership of the IUA has more than doubled over the last decade; the association says more than 3,500 individuals are registered on its market committees and that it now runs more than 40 company market groups spanning underwriting, claims, regulation, digital transformation and sustainability. A new Transactional Liability Committee was also established in 2025 to focus on warranty & indemnity insurance.
The package of structural changes, technical publications and training programmes signals the IUA’s shift from a service‑oriented secretariat to a more active market steward: centring underwriting and claims capability, accelerating digital standardisation, and building the next generation of market practitioners. The association’s work on Blueprint Two and the Core Data Record in particular will be watched closely by brokers and insurers who view digital processing and data standards as critical to future efficiency.
