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QBE North America builds specialty casualty platform with underwriting focus
QBE North America launched its specialty casualty platform in the early 2020s, aiming to restore faster, more transparent decisions by returning underwriting authority closer to the underlying risk.
QBE North America President of Specialty Casualty Karen London said the insurer launched its specialty casualty business in the years around 2022, amid disruption in the casualty market, constrained capacity, and a flow of business into the excess and surplus market, according to an interview published by Risk & Insurance on July 14, 2026. London said the company did not view the effort as simply deploying capacity, but as building a platform to address underlying problems in casualty underwriting, as brokers, clients, and underwriters faced slow decisions, limited transparency, and late changes to outcomes. She added that underwriting authority had shifted too far from the risk, making it harder to influence outcomes and create a consistent experience. In the interview, London described QBE’s approach as bringing broker, client, and underwriter experience back to the center by empowering underwriters with meaningful authority and eliminating complex referral structures. She also said the insurer planned for a disciplined, long-term underwriting strategy, supported by QBE’s financial strength and internal backing. London said four years after the launch, QBE has built a team to deliver the targeted experience and helped fill an “important need” as other carriers pulled back. She also pointed to an early decision to use a focused distribution strategy, taking a more targeted approach than typical in the market.