The company said BRIDGE will be one of the largest consortiums in the cargo market and is aimed at brokers and insureds looking to place sizeable, complex risks against a backdrop of rising asset values and more fragile supply chains.
The launch comes amid sustained demand for cargo cover and a more challenging risk environment. In recent years, marine cargo business has been characterised by higher insurable values driven by inflation in goods, construction and replacement costs, alongside elevated inventory levels and longer transit times.
At the same time, accumulation risk has increased at major ports, warehouses and logistics hubs as larger volumes of high-value goods are concentrated in relatively small geographic areas.
Carriers and brokers are also contending with ongoing supply chain disruption from geopolitical tensions, sanctions, severe weather and natural catastrophes, as well as logistical bottlenecks that can leave cargo exposed for longer in storage or transit. In parallel, there is growing scrutiny of war, strikes, terrorism, cyber and political risk exposures and how these interact with traditional marine cargo wordings, prompting many market participants to revisit coverage structures, sub-limits and exclusions.
According to Brit, BRIDGE has been designed to respond to these dynamics by providing comprehensive cover and protection for cargo risks around the globe, tailored to a wide range of broker and client needs.
In practice, the facility is expected to support both open-market placements and programme-based solutions for clients with sophisticated risk management requirements and multinational operations.
Consortium structures such as BRIDGE are increasingly used in the Lloyd’s and London market to aggregate capacity from multiple carriers under a single lead, streamlining placement and providing brokers with access to substantial, stable line sizes on complex or large schedules. For carriers, they can also support portfolio diversification and tighter control of aggregate exposures at key locations, while preserving a consistent underwriting and claims approach across the participating markets.
By bringing together following markets behind a single lead, facilities of this type can help reduce frictional costs in the placement process and offer clients clearer points of contact for underwriting and claims. They are also often used to support risks where individual market appetite or line sizes may be constrained, but where there is collective appetite to deploy capacity under a coordinated structure.
Jon Sullivan (pictured, left), chief underwriting officer at Brit, said the latest consortium will "further deepend the relevance of our market-leading cargo offering for brokers and their clients."
Meanwhile, Louise Crockford (pictured, right), class underwriter for cargo at Brit, said the consortium will allow the company to continue providing high levels of sophisticated and comprehensive coverage for clients.
"This consortium is an exciting development for us as we continue to enhance our cargo offering," Crockford said.
A facility of this scale is likely to be particularly relevant for high-value project cargo and construction-related shipments, where single-risk limits and delay exposures can be significant; for global manufacturers, commodity traders and logistics providers managing large, multi-location cargo programmes with tight wordings and high service expectations; and for clients facing heightened accumulation and natural catastrophe risk at ports and storage locations, where underwriters are increasingly focused on site-level data, declared values and risk engineering measures.
As marine insurers continue to refine pricing, wordings and aggregation control following several years of elevated loss activity and market volatility, BRIDGE highlights the continuing role of consortia in delivering both capacity and underwriting expertise in the cargo segment, while helping brokers to secure more robust, consistent solutions for complex global supply chains.
