The last few years have been really important in terms of consolidating Liberty Speciality Markets (LSM) presence in the Brazilian market.

Despite the challenging panorama of recent years and the impact of external events such as the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, natural catastrophe losses and the increase in inflation, LSM recorded double digit growth.

The business’s focus is not however on increasing production per se but on ensuring that capital is fully optimised. In that regard, LSM achieved its objective as was able to start 2023 by celebrating its results from 2022.

MDS has been an important partner on our journey. This background of prosperity is true for all countries in Latin America, with consistent growth across the region, above all in underwriting, thanks to the constant, ongoing and vital support of our team of expert engineers. The result has been an excellent balance sheet in all business lines.

I believe the challenges will be even greater in 2023 as a result of the events already mentioned. The market has been impacted by raised contract renewal costs in retrocessions, and is also anticipating a reduction in available capacity for those countries prone to catastrophic events. If you add in the impact of inflation, we expect a really challenging year across property lines in the region.

This year we want to focus on strengthening the support we give to those clients that are committed to the arduous task of the transitioning to less contaminating energy sources. We want to support projects related to infrastructure development.

We also plan to expand in parametric insurance bringing new creativity to wordings and conditions.

As Director of Distribution for LSM in Latin America, and the US, I’m facing this new challenge head-on with all my energy and want to continue increasing the value we bring to our clients. We have a division totally dedicated to clients, brokers and partners, which is aligned with our technical staff and partners with the other divisions in the Liberty Mutual Group, to ensure we always find optimal solutions for clients.

During this new period, we know we can count on the continued support of MDS, not only in Brazil, under the leadership of Ariel Couto - who is doing a remarkable job - but also in the rest of the region via the important Brokerslink distribution channels.