Arch Insurance : Everything you need to know

Headquarters address: Waterloo House, Ground Floor, 100 Pitts Bay Road, Pembroke, Hamilton 08, Bermuda
Gross written premiums: US$3.87 billion (2Q 2022)
Size (employees): 5,200+ (Arch Capital Group)
Global locations: US, Canada, Australia, Bermuda, UK, EU
Underwriting expertise: Specialty lines of insurance, including casualty and professional lines, property, energy, marine, aviation, construction, and programs
Key people: Nicolas Papadopoulo (president and chief underwriting officer, Arch Capital Group Ltd and CEO, Arch Worldwide Insurance Group), John Mentz (president, Arch Insurance North America and chief operating officer, Arch Worldwide Insurance Group), Matthew Shulman (CEO, Arch Insurance North America), Hugh Sturgess (president and CEO, Arch Insurance International), Tony Hay (president and chief underwriting officer, Arch Insurance Bermuda), Mark Lange chief strategy officer, Arch Insurance North America)

About Arch Insurance
Arch Insurance is a global insurer that is part of Arch Capital Group (ACGL or Arch Capital), a Bermuda-based public limited liability company that also writes reinsurance and mortgage insurance on a worldwide basis. The insurance division has operations in North America, Europe and Australia, and provides specialty risk solutions to clients around the world across a range of industries.

Arch Capital has made several key acquisitions to grow the business. Among these is Barbican Group Holdings Limited, which included Barbican Managing Agency Limited, Lloyd’s Syndicate 1955, Castel Underwriting Agencies Limited, and other related entities. This acquisition expanded Arch Capital’s relationships with both Lloyd’s and the London market while providing its broker partners with more products and expertise.

History of Arch Insurance
Arch Capital’s operations kicked off in 2001 with the launch of its reinsurance division, followed soon after by its expansion into insurance and mortgage insurance. Its predecessor company, Risk Capital Holdings, was formed in 1995 and operated until 1999 and focused on reinsurance underwriting and strategic investments in the insurance sector as a publicly traded company.

In 2002, Arch Capital brought in US$1.26 billion in net premiums written for the year ended December 31, 2002, and added Arch Specialty Insurance Company (US) to its platform. By 2005, the group had opened an Arch Insurance Company in Toronto, Canada and London, England. In 2019, Arch Insurance acquired the UK commercial lines business of the Ardonagh Group and formed the Arch UK Regional Division, as well as launching its primary mortgage insurance operations in Australia. The company likewise began underwriting P&C, motor and other business lines in addition to mortgage insurance through its EU arm in Ireland that same year.

Leadership at Arch Insurance
Nicolas Papadopoulo is the CEO of Arch Worldwide Insurance Group, and the president and chief underwriting officer at ACGL. Between July 2014 and September 2017, Papadopoulo was chairman and chief executive officer for Arch Reinsurance Group, though he originally joined Arch Capital in December 2001 when he came on board the reinsurance division and held a variety of underwriting roles.

Before joining Arch Capital, Papadopoulo had several positions at Sorema N.A. Reinsurance Group, a US subsidiary of Groupama, and was also an insurance examiner with the Ministry of Finance, Insurance Department, in France. He graduated from École Polytechnique in France and École Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Economique with a master’s degree in statistics. Outside of the office, he is a member of the International Actuarial Association and a fellow at the French Actuarial Society.

Culture at Arch Insurance
At the employee level, ACGL has several key initiatives to encourage giving back to communities. These include the Arch Matching Gift Program and Corporate Giving program that helps employees build on their community impact by providing them with a 1:1 match to their donations to charitable organizations; Arch’s corporate giving program, where Arch has developed relationships with local, national and international non-profits and other community programs; paid time-off to employees to volunteer for non-profit organizations; and its support of a variety of educational opportunities, such as the Arch MI Data Dive Competition that connects local non-profits with data science students and various internship programs.

Arch also has long-standing community partnerships with the Opens Doors Foundation, which helps people who are caring for critically ill or injured children by covering their mortgage or rent payments, and hospitals in Bermuda as well as the Philippines Initiative, which supports female victims of abuse, and orphaned and abandoned children.