One thing is apparent when you first meet ATI’s outgoing Chief Underwriting Officer. Besides his disarming Scottish lilt and off-beat sense of humour you quickly realise that Stewart Kinloch is a serious student of military history.
In 2008, he joined ATI armed with the discipline learned in his years as a Major in the UK Royal Artillery Territorial Army. He quickly applied strategies similar to military offensives to build an impressive balance sheet and form a dynamic underwriting team based on building internal capacity.
In the insurance industry, the gross amount of insurance underwritten is one of the most important measures used to gauge a company’s health. Using this standard, ATI is robust. Stewart has played a great role in the institution’s growth. During his tenure ATI’s Gross Exposure rose from just over $60 million in 2007 to $383 million in 2010 and his team has expanded to include a Francophone underwriter, three field offices in Uganda, Zambia/Malawi and Tanzania, and a Senior Risk Analyst seconded from SACE, Italy’s Export Credit Agency.
On the eve of his departure from ATI in August, Stewart reflects on his three-years at the business helm of Africa’s only multilateral risk insurer. Whether defined in military terms as a blitzkrieg or a penetration manoeuvre, it seems clear that the presence of this international banking and trade credit expert has made a difference in positioning ATI for another decade of growth.
Q: What have been your greatest accomplishments at ATI?
The Underwriting Team, which includes the Economist and the Credit Analysis Unit, has blossomed out of all recognition in the last 3 years. The team is youthful but highly qualified and being “on the ground” in Africa it is extremely well positioned to add an in-depth perception to risk in Africa that is almost impossible to replicate from outside the continent.
Q: During your extensive career, you’ve worked literally in every continent. From this perspective, what is unique about the African risk insurance market and what potential challenges or opportunities do these differences pose? There are a number of aspects that make Africa unique. But then, I consider Asia, North America, the CIS and Europe to be unique. Perhaps just the word “different” instead of “unique”.
There is a lack of robust Regulation in Africa. That is not to say that Africa is alone in this regard and that is not to say that there have not been important improvements even in the last three years. Still more needs to be done and institutions such as the AU and AfDB, to name but two, are making positive contributions in this area.
Q: Any predictions on the future of risk insurance in Africa? With the events in the Middle East and North Africa rumbling on, it would be a brave man that predicted the future or an Economist who would start a sentence with the phrase: “On the one hand… and on the other”!
I will certainly watch with interest the forthcoming elections which will affect many African nations in the next 24 months. I do hope that, unlike some governments in the Middle East and North Africa, both governments and opposition parties respond to the challenges posed by an ever more savvy and informed youth.
Q: What military tactics best describes your underwriting strategy?I doubt that this tactic is a Military copyright. Make a realistic assessment of your strengths and weaknesses on day one and remember that you do not have the luxury to scrap everything you do not like and start over. Then, make the most of what you have got today and try to plan ahead for tomorrow.
Q: We had to ask, what next?
And I have to respond: “Watch this space!”
