When American International Group’s chief financial officer spoke about “managing change in an evolving insurance industry” at a rating agency conference in November, Mark Lyons focused much of his talk on his own company.
Executive Summary
Managing change starts from within, says AIG CFO Mark Lyons, who described changes to risk appetite, underwriting, distribution and operations that leaders believe are making the carrier—and the industry—stronger during a presentation at a recent Fitch Ratings conference.“We think that [given] AIG’s footprint in the U.S. and around the world—and all the product lines we have, and all the geographies and distribution that we have—that a strong AIG is good for the industry,” said Lyons during the keynote speech at the Fitch Ratings North American Insurance Conference.
Changes in strategy related to risk appetite and capacity management have strengthened AIG’s underwriting results, according to Lyons, who reported that the core accident-year combined ratio (excluding catastrophes) is down to 96 for 2019, and that on a calendar-year basis (including cats and reserve changes), the figure dipped under breakeven through nine months—99.6 compared to 110 for calendar-year 2018 in the comparable nine-month period.
