The Barbican Insurance Group is still a relatively young company and one of the most recent Syndicates to be established at Lloyd’s.
Barbican Syndicate 1955 was launched in November 2007. The prevailing financial conditions were hardly conducive for the start of a new insurance and reinsurance business. A short time before, Northern Rock had been bailed out by the Bank of England while global credits markets were being ravaged by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis.
Many banks and insurance companies were heading into choppy waters—and worried Lloyd’s incumbents were urging the Corporation to resist any new entrants fearing its stability could be put in jeopardy. Nonetheless, Barbican was one of only two new syndicates accepted that year.
The recent growth of Barbican
Not only did the Barbican Group survive these turbulent beginnings, the company grew steadily in line with the three year business plan. A stamp capacity of £75 million was achieved in Year one despite many key underwriters not joining the operation until mid-2008. Subsequently, Barbican’s stamp capacity increased to £ 130 million in 2009—and currently stands at £180 million.
The future success of Barbican
Our performance and profitability to date has encouraged Barbican investors to make sure further capital becomes available. The mid-term objective for the business is a capacity of £300 million by 2012.
This success is based on Barbican’s founding strategy of disciplined underwriting allied to a thoughtful problem-solving approach to the business. Investing in the best underwriting talent available in the market, and the creation of an infrastructure designed to support future growth, has clearly proved worthwhile.
What’s in a name?
Solid and dependable-sounding, ‘Barbican’ is also the name of a well-known district on the edge of The City of London. The word comes from the Latin, barbacane, meaning a fortified gateway, usually positioned just outside a city’s walls. Being historically a strategic first line of defence makes the choice of our corporate name particularly apt in the uncertain world of natural events in which we operate.
For our company logo, we wanted an image that related to the roots of the name itself—but it didn’t appear that any authentic visual reference existed. Then, one of our designers poring over old engravings in the Print Room of the Guildhall Library came across a map of the City of London in Saxon times. Outside the City walls, to the north of Aldersgate, was a drawing of a small tower perched on a round hill. It was shaped like a castle and bore a caption reading ‘Barbacan’.
Here we had found the inspiration for our logo. After a series of sketches and design adaptations, it was developed into the finished form you see here.
