Who are Markel Trade Credit and what do you specialise in?
Markel Trade Credit started life in 2010 with four senior underwriters based in the UK, specialising in underwriting Excess of Loss (XOL) policies. It has grown significantly since then and we now have 40 people across three departments (we also have a Political Risk and Surety team) around the world, with Trade Credit underwriters based in Singapore, Dubai and North America.
XOL remains our number one focus, but we also have Single Risk and Named Buyer capabilities. Our strength lies in our ability to also offer bespoke solutions to clients on more far-reaching covers and policy types.

What makes Markel stand out from your competitors?
The quality of our people and the structure of the team means that authority levels are high, the autonomy we’re afforded is great, and we’re able to offer high levels of service and carve out time to find solutions for clients as a result. This means taking the time to really listen to their needs, find out why they want to purchase a policy, and how they need it to work for them. We then devise the correct endorsements and wordings for them, working closely with both the broker and client.
We don’t hand over new clients to a different team or to other underwriters. Our belief is that the underwriter who met the clients and who helped construct the policy should be the one to take it forward and service the account. The fact that all our underwriters have a ‘dual pen’ for both commercial and risk also helps to speed up the decision-making process and our ability to provide answers to clients in good time.

What trends has Markel seen in 2024?

As all our credit limits are written on a non-cancellable basis, we're able to give clients that all-important certainty of cover. Markel clients know that, even in the face of sector downturns and poor individual buyer audited accounts being filed, their credit limit will remain in place for the full 12 months after it is written. So although there have been challenges facing certain sectors, such as the retail industry, due to high business rates and rents, and the increase in the national living wage and national insurance (NI) contributions, we’ve remained open for business throughout for the right cases. The same is true for construction (adversely affected by large, high-profile insolvencies over the past 18 months that have had knock-on effects in the supply chain, as well as the impact of high inflation affecting margins on fixed price contracts), and food & drink (with the increase in living wage and NI employer contributions starting to bite, in addition to changes in consumer spending habits and how, and where, people choose to spend their disposable income).
Another big trend we’ve seen in 2024 is the prevalence of companies and clients we talk to transitioning from talking about sustainability and ESG to doing something about it and putting active policies in place. This can range from the adoption of green energy programmes in the manufacturing of goods, the transition from using fossil fuels to electric, hydro and solar power instead, and the products that are being put out into the marketplace (such as electric vehicles). We’re starting to see more enquiries relating to carbon credits and electric grid connection bonds.
We still see a healthy spread of clients in the corporate trade and finance sector, and indeed banks and other financial institutions, continue to purchase policies and invest capital in the insurance space. This is promising to see, given the potential implications that Basel IV will have with how banks are able to rate their risk-weighted assets (RWAs) and the capital relief benefits they’re able to gain from having a credit insurance policy.

What are the key issues facing us in 2025?
2024 was dubbed as the year of elections, with in excess of 2 billion people going to the polls in more than 50 countries. We’re still to fully understand some of the fallout from these elections, as the recent political events in the US and France show. Germany is not due to go to the polls until later in 2025, but regional election results and the collapse of the three-party coalition mean that a snap election in the next few months is a likely scenario. There is relative political turmoil and unrest in many of the G7 economies and it remains to be seen what moves the Trump organisation makes within its first 100 days of being back in the White House. A trade war with the EU remains a real possibility and it’s expected that Chinese firms will be hit with at least a 60% increase in tariffs. We’ll be watching closely to see what happens with the steel and aluminium tariffs between the US and EU that are due to be decided on by the end of Q1 2025. This could have a major impact on an already embattled global automotive industry, impacting profits of European and US carmakers by more than 15%.
In the UK, the increase in NI employer contributions, aimed at affecting businesses rather than individuals, will nevertheless potentially have a huge impact on salaries and wage growth in 2025 and beyond, especially in certain sectors and on businesses of certain sizes. Unfortunately, SMEs will likely be the ones hardest hit by the changes.
Inflation has fallen in the UK but remains relatively, and stubbornly high. Therefore, only a couple of Bank of England rate cuts are now expected in 2025, meaning spending power amongst households and consumers may remain subdued. This could continue to have an effect on the retail and food & drink industries, and on demand for FMCG and white and brown goods. This could impact the already modest growth the UK has seen in the past few years, and to the reduced forecast for 2025, which the OECD has just revised to 1.2%.
Although oil and gas prices have somewhat stabilised since the price spikes of 2022, the political events and shocks seen in the Middle East over the past 12 months, the continuation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the recent collapse of the Syrian regime make it hard to predict with any certainty that there will be stability both in terms of energy and food and grain prices in the next 12 months.

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Anything else?
In addition, Q4 saw the launch of our brand-new client and broker portal! Whilst we will never lose the “human touch” that we bring to underwriting policies through speaking and interacting with clients and brokers, day-in, day-out, we realise that people also want to have the ability to interact with us through technology and have policy data accessible at the touch of a button. The early adopters have been
positive in their feedback!

We were also privileged to host the annual Trade Credit Industry dinner in November, and honoured to have The Choir With No Name (The Choir With No Name | The choir charity for homeless and marginalised people) as the named charity and sing for us on the evening. They serenaded the audience with some classic hits from the past few decades and had everyone on their feet for their rendition of Sweet Caroline (with two special guests from the audience), it was truly inspirational. The event was over-subscribed and well attended with more than 500 guests, and all the profits from the night went to CWNN. It was a wonderful chance for members of our industry to enjoy a special evening together.

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