With a career spanning the intersection of traditional insurance and cutting-edge Insurtech, Simon Glairy is a leading voice on risk management and AI-driven assessment. We sat down with him to discuss the recent London Matters 2026 report, a document that celebrates London’s dominance in the global risk market while sounding a clear alarm about the challenges ahead. Our conversation explored the urgent need to outpace rival hubs, attract new forms of capital, and tackle a looming demographic crisis that threatens the very foundation of the market’s expertise.
London’s market income has doubled in a decade, hitting $187 billion. How can the market balance celebrating this success with the urgent need to address faster growth in competing hubs like Bermuda? What specific strategies, beyond current efforts, will ensure London outpaces its rivals?
It’s a classic case of not resting on your laurels. Celebrating the $187 billion figure is essential for morale and for showcasing our strength, especially when you consider it’s a 17% jump since just 2022. But that celebration has to be paired with a healthy dose of paranoia. The report is clear: others are growing faster. To truly outpace them, we must become more aggressive in marketing our unique value proposition: the unparalleled concentration of expertise. It’s not just about capital; it’s about the ability to craft solutions for “every conceivable type of risk.” We need to create specialized, government-backed task forces for frontier risks like AI liability and intangible assets, making London the undisputed regulatory and underwriting sandbox for the risks of tomorrow. This isn’t just about efficiency; it’s about cementing our reputation as the only place where the truly complex, novel risks can find a home.
With emerging risks like AI and renewables potentially driving hundreds of millions in new premiums, capital is key. Besides making the UK ILS regime more efficient, what practical steps can London take to become the top destination for investors seeking transparent, insurance-linked returns? Please share some specifics.
Capital follows innovation and transparency. Making the ILS regime more efficient is table stakes; the real game-changer is in product design and data access. We need to create a more direct, accessible pathway for a broader range of investors, not just the highly specialized funds. Imagine a platform, endorsed by the market, that standardizes and tokenizes specific risk portfolios—say, a tranche of the expected $800 million in new renewables premium. This would provide investors with unparalleled transparency into the underlying risks and performance. We saw with London Bridge 2 how collaboration can unlock capital, growing 150% annually to $1.9 billion. The next step is to apply that collaborative model to create a more liquid, technologically-driven marketplace for insurance-linked investments, making London feel less like an old-world club and more like a modern financial exchange for risk.
The proportion of market workers under 30 is projected to fall from 24% to 7% within a decade. What are the most immediate, concrete actions firms must take to reverse this trend, and how can we convince them to prioritize trainee recruitment even when the market softens?
That 24% to 7% projection is the most chilling statistic in the entire report; it’s an existential threat. The most immediate action is a market-wide commitment, a signed charter if you will, where firms pledge to maintain a minimum ratio of trainees to senior staff, regardless of market conditions. We must disconnect entry-level hiring from short-term financial cycles. The argument to convince them is simple: failing to invest now is guaranteeing a competency cliff in ten years. We have to hammer home the message that skills in this industry take years to build. Cutting apprenticeships to save money today is like a farmer eating his seed corn; it ensures starvation tomorrow. The 18% drop in job postings is a flashing red light, and we need to treat it with the urgency of a four-alarm fire.
As technology and AI are integrated into daily processes, how can the market best utilize the skills of its younger, digitally native workforce? What specific programs can be implemented to ensure the invaluable expertise of retiring professionals is effectively transferred to this next generation?
This is where the demographic challenge becomes an opportunity. We must stop seeing our younger and older professionals as two separate groups and start actively pairing them. The best way to utilize digitally native talent is to embed them in “reverse mentorship” programs. Have the 25-year-old who understands AI intuitively teach the 65-year-old underwriter how new tools can augment their judgment, not replace it. In return, we need structured, formalized apprenticeship pathways where that senior underwriter’s deep, nuanced knowledge is transferred. This can’t be left to chance. It means carving out dedicated time for case-study reviews, shadowing on complex claims, and storytelling sessions where decades of experience on market cycles and unpredictable risks are passed down. It’s about merging digital fluency with deep-seated wisdom.
What is your forecast for the London Market?
My forecast is one of cautious optimism, contingent on immediate action. The fundamentals are incredibly strong—we contribute £61 billion to the UK GDP and hold an all-time high 8.7% of the global reinsurance market. The opportunities in emerging risks are immense. However, if we ignore the talent pipeline crisis and are too slow to attract new forms of capital, we risk becoming a magnificent, but slowly fading, institution. The next five years will be decisive. If we embrace technology, solve the human capital equation, and aggressively pursue new risk frontiers, London will not only maintain its position but will define the global conversation on risk for the next generation. If we don’t, we’ll be reading reports in ten years about how we let the crown slip. The choice is ours to make.
