Life at Hiscox

We are a growing, global business, offering everything from small business insurance to insurance‑linked securities, and that means no two days at Hiscox are the same. In the pages that follow, find out more about life at Hiscox in 2024.

STATES OF

PLAY

Meet Mary Boyd, our new Chief Executive Officer of Hiscox USA.

See pages 38 to 41.

JOURNEY PLANNER

How the Hiscox approach to learning and development is shaping the experts and leaders of tomorrow.

See pages 70 to 73.

INTELLIGENT INSURANCE

How Hiscox is using technology and data to differentiate its offering.

See pages 48 to 51.

CUSTOM MADE

Lifting the lid on customer centricity.

See pages 60 to 63.

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

Highlights of the year

Financial performance

$685.4m

Profit before tax of $685.4 million (2023: $625.9 million).

89.2%*

Undiscounted combined ratio of 89.2% (2023: 89.8%).

19.8%*

Return on equity of 19.8%

(2023: 21.8%).

Non-financial achievements

$4,766.9m*

Insurance contract written premium of $4,766.9 million (2023: $4,598.2 million).

82%

High global employee engagement score maintained for the third consecutive year.

9%

Reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions across the Group during 2024 (vs 2020 baseline).

57%

Over half of our London Market sabotage and terrorism business is now supported by our AI-lead underwriting solution.

The Group has delivered another year of excellent results. Our retail businesses continue to build growth and earnings momentum, while our big-ticket portfolio has shown proactive cycle management, as well as underwriting discipline, to deliver strong results in an active loss year. We’ve been there for our customers, we’ve innovated in what we do and how we do it, and we’ve attracted and retained top talent.”

Aki Hussain

Group Chief Executive Officer

*Represents alternative performance measure (APM) used by the Group. APM definitions used by the Group are included within the consolidated financial statements on page 229.

†As measured by an independent third party across the UK, Europe and US retail businesses.

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

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Key moments in 2024

January

Celebrated 30 years in partnership with Control Risks, through which we offer a market-leading insurance and crisis response service.

April

Hiscox Re & ILS launched CyberShock, an industry‑first cyber catastrophe consortium.

Celebrated a decade in directors and officers’ (D&O) insurance.

March

Announced $150 million share buyback programme.

June

Mary Boyd appointed Chief Executive Officer of Hiscox USA.

Read more on pages 38 to 41.

November

Hiscox Retail’s first multi-country deal with a leading digital MGA in Europe went live.

December

Hiscox Europe surpassed the €600 million premium mark.

July

Hiscox Spain launched new business protection product – the first packaged insurance product on the market for SMEs.

Read more on page 62.

August

Hiscox London Market went live with our generative AI‑enhanced lead underwriting model in collaboration with Google Cloud, writing sabotage and terrorism risks.

Read more on page 49.

September

AI-enhanced new business automation solution went live in Hiscox UK, reducing quote handling times by 40%.

Hiscox London Market launched new Personnel Security Plus product – complementing existing kidnap and ransom (K&R) cover with new perils such as cyber stalking and social engineering.

Hiscox UK’s high-value-household product launched on e-trading platform, Acturis.

Hiscox Germany completed its adoption of a new core administration system, as we continue to build a scalable technology infrastructure across Europe.

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

At a glance

About us

Where we are

Hiscox is a global, specialty insurer, listed on the London Stock Exchange and headquartered in Bermuda. We have grown from our roots as a niche Lloyd’s of London underwriter into a diversified international insurance group operating across direct‑to‑consumer, broker and partner‑distributed retail insurance; large and complex commercial insurance; reinsurance and insurance‑linked strategies. We have a distinctive brand, energised and ambitious teams, a strong balance sheet, and plenty of room to grow in each of our chosen markets and lines of business.

We currently employ over 3,000 people worldwide across 13 countries and 32 offices. We serve almost 1.7 million retail customers across the UK, Europe and the USA, and we remain one of the largest and longest-standing Lloyd’s of London syndicates.

32

offices

13

countries

1.7m

customers

3,000+

employees

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Our purpose

Our vision

Our values

We give people and businesses the confidence to realise their ambitions. To do this, we provide differentiated products and services that address our customers’ needs, delivered by our talented, energetic and connected teams. Success is measured in our reputation, financial performance, and customer attraction and retention.

For Hiscox to be the leading specialist insurer in material markets – not the biggest, but the most respected. We want to be known by customers for being true to our word, by our employees as a great place to work and grow for those who are ambitious and talented, and as an industry leader in growth, profits and value creation.

Human

Clear, fair and inclusive.

Connected

Together, build something better.

Integrity

Do the right thing, however hard.

Ownership

Passionate, commercial and accountable.

Courage

Dare to take a risk.

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

A strategy that creates value

We have a unique business mix

Read more on page 8.

The Hiscox Group comprises three business units facing different opportunities and challenges, but with a common set of capabilities and the capital support required for success.

Attractive and sustainable returns for shareholders

Long-term profitable growth

Progressive dividend

Attractive and sustainable ROE

Operational leverage

Managed volatility delivering lower cost of capital

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

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We leverage our differentiated offering

Global reach

We are an international business, but we invest in local market knowledge and experience to truly understand the markets we operate in and provide relevant products and services. This gives us a unique breadth of expertise, serving customers from sole traders to multinational companies and ILS investors.

Specialist products

In every part of the Hiscox Group, we focus on providing products and services that differentiate us. These range from high-value home insurance and fine art – areas where we have deep foundations to build on – to small business, flood, and kidnap and ransom – where innovative products and service set us apart.

Claims experience

Being true to our word is the cornerstone of our claims service. Each customer and claim is different, which is why we have embedded experienced claims teams with specialist product knowledge in every part of our business.

Talented and highly skilled people

The quality of our people is a crucial factor in our continuing success. Their expertise, energy and commitment drive our reputation for quality and professionalism. In return, we aim to provide a work environment that brings out the best in everybody and rewards hard work.

Powerful brand

We have invested significantly over many years to build a recognised and renowned brand. Our distinctive marketing campaigns are developed from a deep understanding of our customers and positively contribute to consumer buying decisions.

We create value for all our stakeholders

Read more on pages 52 to 55.

$1.4bn*

returned to shareholders over the last ten years.

$2bn

paid out to customers in claims in 2024.

82%

High employee engagement score in 2024, for the third consecutive year.

Two-thirds

We currently lead on two-thirds of the London Market business we write through Syndicate 33.

Hiscox is truly distinctive within the sector, thanks to our mix of big-ticket and retail businesses, as well as how and where we operate. This allows us to effectively manage the insurance cycle, as our big-ticket businesses have done excellently in 2024, with sustainable value creation in mind.”

Paul Cooper

Group Chief Financial Officer

*Includes share buybacks and all special, ordinary, and Scrip Dividends paid to shareholders since 1 January 2015. Excludes the final dividend proposed for 2024.

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

A balanced business

Hiscox Retail

Read more on pages 30 to 32.

Hiscox London Market

Read more on pages 32 to 33.

Our big-ticket insurance business uses the global licences, distribution network and credit rating of Lloyd’s to insure clients throughout the world with large, and often complex, insurance needs. This business is written through a number of our syndicates including Syndicate 33, one of the largest syndicates at Lloyd’s of London. Our product range includes property, marine and energy, casualty and other specialty insurance lines. We now lead on more open market risks, with a combination of underwriting and digital expertise that differentiates us.

Our reinsurance and ILS business serves clients worldwide in different ways. Hiscox Re is our global reinsurance business, written out of London and Bermuda and offering property, specialty, cyber, marine and aviation, and risk excess of loss reinsurance products, as well as retrocessional cover. Hiscox ILS is our alternative investment manager, which manages capital for third parties through insurance‑linked strategies.

Our retail operations focus on specialist areas of personal lines, such as high‑value homes and fine art, and commercial lines including emerging professions, media and tech, and small business insurance. We aim to be available however customers choose to purchase – whether that’s through a broker, via our website or over the phone. With each of our retail operations at different stages of maturity, we are focused on building scale as the size of our addressable markets is huge, so we continue to invest in our brand, distribution and technology.

Hiscox Re & ILS

Read more on page 33.

Structure

†DirectAsia is no longer regarded as part of the core Hiscox Retail portfolio and is classified as a disposal group held for sale in the financial statements.

*Includes ILS, quota share and catastrophe bond funds.

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

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Clear priorities

Our sustainability strategy

We want to be here for the long term, for our customers, colleagues and communities, operating in a sustainable way for the future.

Read more on pages 56 to 59.

Business priorities 2025

Read more on pages 10 to 19.

Every part of our business has huge growth potential, which we’ll realise through our laser focus on managing volatility, continued technical excellence, evolving operational maturity, attracting and retaining great talent, and most importantly putting the customer at the heart of everything we do.”

Joanne Musselle

Group Chief Underwriting Officer

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

Profitable growth and managed volatility

1.    

Our focus has remained on achieving targeted growth and sustained profitability in big-ticket through effective cycle management and managed volatility, at the same time as pursuing structural growth in retail, where we have continued to increase our share in large and fragmented markets. During 2024, the Group delivered a record profit before tax of $685.4 million (2023: $625.9 million) and a strong undiscounted combined ratio of 89.2% (2023: 89.8%) despite the active loss environment.

As our business continues to grow, we will look to leverage the power of the Hiscox Group and the strength of its diversification. In retail, we will continue to utilise both our expertise and recognised brand to achieve profitable growth in our existing markets, where our market shares remain modest and the structural growth opportunity remains significant. In big-ticket, we will continue to optimise our underwriting portfolios and maintain our disciplined growth philosophy as we continue to prioritise portfolio resilience.

Technical excellence

2.

We have continued to advance our data and technology strategies to support decision-making, share expertise across our infrastructure and build strong foundations for future innovation. This includes a continued focus on the alignment of underwriting, claims, reserving and pricing, and progress in removing some of the frictions of manual trading to unlock both efficiencies and opportunities for growth – as we have done during 2024 by launching Lloyd’s first lead underwriting model enhanced

by generative AI, in collaboration with Google Cloud. While we have started with sabotage and terrorism, we will move to other more complex lines of business over time.

Building on work delivered in 2024, we will continue to strengthen our data and analytics muscle and accelerate our data transformation as we look to build a data‑driven culture that supports more targeted and agile decision‑making (see pages 48 to 51).

Operational maturity

3.

We made further progress in improving our expense ratio and continue to take steps towards realising the benefits of scale thanks to process automation enabled by technological deployments, and heightened governance over our change spend. This includes the introduction in 2024 of a new source‑to‑pay solution which is transforming the way we interact with third parties (see page 55). We have also embedded our enterprise portfolio management function, which manages our change portfolio and

is bringing greater rigour to prioritisation and capital allocation decisions, and the effectiveness of delivery.

In the year ahead, we will continue to build our change management maturity with an emphasis on prioritising high-impact initiatives and benefit realisation. Our transition to a global, scalable model will be underpinned by a culture of process excellence to uncover opportunities to further increase operational leverage and drive scale.

Connected and

energised teams

4.

We are proud of our progress in 2024, which resulted in us maintaining our high engagement score of 82% for the third consecutive year (see page 27). We have continued to invest in our employee value proposition, which this year included further empowering our people’s personal growth and professional excellence with a revamped Hiscox Learning Hub and a new partnership with LinkedIn Learning (see pages 70 to 73).

We remain committed to cultivating a highly engaged and inclusive workforce to help us deliver exceptional service to our customers. We will continue to invest in upskilling our talent through focused learning pathways – with a particular focus on leadership capabilities – and critically reviewing the skills we need both today and tomorrow.

Customer centricity

5.

In line with our ambition of becoming a leading customer-centric organisation, we continue to put our customers at the heart of our business by further evolving our customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities and identifying where we can maximise value to our customers across their lifecycles. During 2024, this included improvements to our faster payment capabilities in claims; an enhanced broker pipeline management capability which is positively aiding adoption rates across open market sales

teams; and a refined customer insights approach which is boosting alignment between marketing and sales activity.

Over the year ahead, we will deepen our focus on reducing friction in customer journeys and refining our services to deliver timely, personalised customer support. This will include further exploring our use of AI in both our big-ticket and retail businesses, and considering new opportunities to add real value at critical moments of the customer journey.

The world around us

Economic instability

Geopolitical volatility

Evolving ESG expectations

Globally disinflation has continued, but the risk remains that inflation reignites due to tariffs, trade wars or supply chain disruption. The major global economic challenge currently is growth, which remains relatively low. Regardless of how the macroeconomic environment develops, our geographic diversification provides resilience, and our prudent investment approach limits exposure to short-term market volatility.

Geopolitical tensions have persisted over the year, and the new US administration could lead to a recalibration of foreign policy and security globally. Our big-ticket business has continued to rigorously manage the small levels of exposures in regions most impacted by conflict, such as the Middle East, while our domestic‑focused retail businesses are not directly impacted by current conflicts. In Europe, government crises and associated uncertainty in Germany and France are depressing business confidence and creating barriers to

growth. Nevertheless, we believe we still have strong opportunities to grow in Europe, given our currently modest market share.

Regulation and broader stakeholder expectations relating to environmental, social and governance factors continue to develop, and we remain committed to addressing our responsibilities in this area. We have introduced a new stand‑alone, Group-wide human rights policy, aligned with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and we have been preparing for the first CSRD disclosures in our European business.

For more information, see pages 56 to 59. 

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Hiscox currently operates in seven countries across Continental Europe.

The environment we operate in continues to change at pace. Key themes we are monitoring to ensure we remain well positioned to manage associated risks and opportunities are outlined below.

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

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The impact of a changing climate

New technologies

The battle for talent

2024 was the warmest year since records began and has been characterised by a host of devastating natural disasters. This includes five hurricanes making landfall in the USA, flooding in Spain, Germany and central Europe, and a number of weather events in Canada. Despite the more active loss environment, natural catastrophe losses were within our expectations for 2024.

We have extensive history and expertise in analysing the impact of natural catastrophes, and we recognise

the need to continue to develop this further as the impacts of climate change intensify. This year we have introduced a climate dashboard, monitored by our Sustainability Steering Committee, to track our performance against our climate risk appetite and relevant targets.

For more information, see pages 74 to 88.

The capabilities of AI and the pace of adoption have both increased rapidly over the past year. We are focused on making the most of the efficiencies and insight AI can generate via a number of projects, for example through our market-leading collaboration with Google Cloud, while ensuring that appropriate safeguards are in place (see pages 48 to 51). In addition, we are closely monitoring the impact AI could have on our customers and their risk profiles as they adopt it within their own business processes. The power of AI can also

be deployed maliciously, and our cyber teams continue to track how AI will amplify cyber threats both now and in the future.

The quality of our people is a crucial factor in our continuing success. We’re proud that in 2024 we’ve continued to maintain our high employee engagement scores for the third consecutive year. Nevertheless, recruiting specialist talent remains a challenge and we continue to evolve our employee proposition so we can attract and retain exceptional people. There are global shortages of experience and expertise impacting various sectors – not only our own, but also those we insure – and we continue to follow this trend closely.

For more information, see pages 64 to 69.

620

In 2024, we attracted 620 new colleagues to Hiscox.

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

Actively managing risk

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We continue to evolve our risk management strategies and, in 2024 we strengthened our existing approach including in areas such as AI governance.”

Fabrice Brossart

Group Chief Risk Officer

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

A very good year

Net asset value per share*

1,086.4¢

Return on equity*

19.8%

Undiscounted combined ratio*

89.2%

Basic earnings per share

183.2¢

Insurance contract written premium*

$4,766.9m

Net insurance contract written premium*

$3,675.6m

Profit before tax

$685.4m

Financial KPIs

Ordinary dividend

43.1¢

*Represents alternative performance measure (APM) used by the Group. APM definitions used by the Group are included within the consolidated financial statements on page 229.

†Excludes Bermuda deferred tax asset (DTA). Including Bermuda DTA, basic earnings per share was 206.1 cents and return on equity was 27.6%.

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

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UK gender pay gap

16.5%

In the UK, we have been annually disclosing our UK gender pay gap since 2017, and continue to focus on closing the gap over time. We recognise the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) disclosure in driving progress, and more information on our gender/sex and ethnicity data can be found on pages 66 to 68.

See connected and energised teams.

Employee engagement

82%

We are proud to have maintained our high employee engagement score for the third consecutive year in 2024. Our people value our evolved listening strategy, which now includes quarterly pulse surveys that provide us with more real-time feedback on what is working well and where we may need to make a change.

See connected and energised teams.

Reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions

-9%

As part of our focus on being a responsible business, we have committed to achieving a 50% reduction in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2030, against a 2020 adjusted baseline. While this is a multi-year programme of work, and progress is unlikely to happen in a straight line, our 2024 priorities included the adoption of renewable energy in many of our offices and ongoing engagement with our landlords to realise environmental efficiencies (see pages 84 to 85).

Germany customer satisfaction 80

Germany is our largest operation in Continental Europe, and here we monitor how likely customers and their brokers are to recommend Hiscox after making a claim, based on their experience of our service and support. With a transactional net promoter score range from -100 to +100, we are pleased to consistently sustain very high levels of customer satisfaction.

See customer centricity.

US customer reviews using Feefo 4.7/5

In the USA, we ask customers to review their experience of Hiscox post-purchase. We do this using Feefo, which has a five-star rating system, and are pleased to maintain such high scores year after year, even as the business grows.

See customer centricity.

Non-financial performance

UK customer satisfaction 94%

In the UK, customers who speak to one of our insurance experts in our customer experience centre in York are asked to rate their experience of Hiscox at the end of the call. Whether they have phoned for advice, a quote, to purchase a new policy or make changes to an existing one, their feedback helps us to constantly improve our service.

See customer centricity.

Data only available from 2022.

Table denotes reduction vs the 2020 baseline each year. Data only available from 2021.

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

Positive growth momentum

High-quality growth underpins second consecutive year of record profits

The Group has delivered another year of strong results, and we closed the year with improving growth momentum and excellent profitability. ICWP increased 3.7% or $168.7 million, as Retail growth accelerated in the final quarter to over 7% in constant currency, and we continued to deploy more capital in the big-ticket businesses. The Group’s strong undiscounted combined ratio of 89.2% (2023: 89.8%) is a testament to our disciplined underwriting. The investment result of $383.9 million (2023: $384.4 million) made another meaningful contribution to profitability. The record profit before tax of $685.4 million (2023: $625.9 million), up 9.5% on last year’s record profits, with strong returns delivered by each business segment, demonstrates the strength of the Group as we move forward to capture the opportunities ahead of us.

Growth momentum building

In Retail, we are achieving broad‑based growth. The UK business is benefitting from management actions taken over the last few years which have reinvigorated

the brand, added distribution capability and applied technology to improve service to brokers, leading to its strongest rate of growth since 2018. In Europe, we have expanded our distribution and rolled out new technology to grow our market presence. In the USA within digital, partnerships and direct (DPD), the direct business is achieving strong double-digit growth; and in partnerships, the trend of more moderate flows across some established partnerships from the second and third quarters has continued into the fourth quarter. While the US broker premiums continued to decline, the growth gap is narrowing as the business benefits from several initiatives already launched, with more in the pipeline to deliver further improvements to performance next year. We are continuing to invest in our brand, distribution and product development to build on the current positive momentum.

Our big-ticket businesses have demonstrated our cycle management expertise and underwriting discipline, delivering robust profitability in an active loss year. While we are seeing more competition in property, market conditions remain attractive, and we

Chief Executive’s report

The Group has delivered another set of excellent results and a second consecutive year of record profits.

Aki Hussain

Group Chief Executive Officer

Hiscox Ltd

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Hiscox Ltd Report and Accounts 2024

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Our big-ticket businesses have demonstrated our cycle management expertise and underwriting discipline, delivering robust profitability in an active loss year.”

are deploying incremental capital where we see the best risk-adjusted returns. We are continuing to invest in our capabilities to support longer-term growth and efficiency by increasingly digitising our internal processes and augmenting our underwriting using AI.

Delivering shareholder returns

Our capital allocation philosophy is to deploy capital for profitable growth while maintaining a strong balance sheet and paying a progressive dividend. The Group is delivering on its promise, and we are achieving high-quality growth, as momentum in our Retail business accelerates combined with selective growth in big-ticket. In 2024, this resulted in substantial capital generation, an excellent return on equity of 19.8% and an estimated BSCR of 225%. The combination of earnings momentum, and substantial capital generation from our big-ticket businesses creates the flexibility to pursue multiple growth opportunities and enable a step-up of our progressive dividend, with the final dividend per share increasing by 19.6%, as well as an additional special capital return of $175 million via a share buyback. This is consistent with our commitment to return excess capital to shareholders. These actions reinforce the Group’s confidence in our strategy and our ability to capture the significant opportunity ahead.

People are critical to our success

Our people are the cornerstone of our business, and I am deeply proud that, for the third year running, we have sustained a high employee engagement score in the 80s. We continue to nurture our deep internal talent while adding new expertise throughout the organisation, including at senior management level.

In Retail, Mary Boyd was appointed as Hiscox USA Chief Executive Officer back in June; and in January 2025, Shali Vasudeva joined as Group Chief Operations and Technology Officer.

I would also like to take a moment to remember our late Chair, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judith who tragically died during the year. Jonathan’s deep experience, sharp intellect, and strong personal values combined with humour and humility were an asset to the Group, and something I deeply valued. He is dearly missed.

Business performance

Hiscox Retail1

Hiscox Retail comprises our retail businesses around the world: Hiscox UK, Hiscox Europe, Hiscox USA and DirectAsia. In this segment, our entrepreneurial culture, specialist sector and class of business knowledge, brand, and market-leading distribution platforms reinforce our strong market position in an increasingly digital world.

Hiscox Retail ICWP grew by 5.1% in constant currency to $2,504.6 million (2023: $2,357.3 million), improving on the prior year. This is driven by continued good growth in Europe and US DPD, and building momentum in the UK, while the contraction in US broker is slowing. Rates in Retail, a less cyclical business, increased by 2% across our markets, as inflationary pressures abated.

We are making good progress in brand and distribution initiatives across all of our Retail businesses. In 2024, we won nine new distribution deals in the UK, signed our first multi-country deal with a leading digital MGA in Europe, and onboarded 17 new digital partners in the USA. Our brand

campaign in the UK won 18 awards and, more importantly, is contributing to growth. We also continue to innovate with technology, having rolled out artificial intelligence (AI) solutions in both UK art and private client (APC) and Irish commercial lines, with more projects underway. These initiatives are improving quality, efficiency and speed of distribution and helping build growth momentum, which year on year accelerated to over 7% in the final quarter.

The Retail insurance service result of $246.5 million is a 39.0% increase on prior year, leading to an undiscounted combined ratio improvement of 2.8 percentage points to 93.6% (2023: 96.4%). To achieve this level of profitability while continuing to increase investment into growth is a pleasing result. We will continue to invest in marketing, technology and distribution to capture the structural growth opportunities ahead of us. Our unique Retail business, specialist underwriting and investment over recent years position us well to ensure that all roads lead to Hiscox for our customers.

Hiscox UK

Hiscox UK provides commercial insurance, locally traded specialty insurance, as well as personal lines cover, including high-value household, fine art and luxury motor.

Hiscox UK grew ICWP by 5.8% in constant currency to $864.0 million (2023: $793.8 million). Momentum accelerated in the year as the business continues to benefit from management actions aimed at reinvigorating the brand, improving distribution production, and enhancing customer service through technology.

1K&R business written through Syndicate 33 has been transferred from Hiscox USA to Hiscox London Market. 2023 financials have been restated to report on a consistent basis.

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UK APC delivered double-digit growth, with particularly strong momentum in the broker channel as we capitalised on attractive market opportunities. This was supported by the implementation of an AI-enhanced new business automation solution in September. The new business AI tool, in combination with our e-trade digital capabilities, has reduced handling times by up to 40%, while also allowing for over half of all personal lines quotes to be processed automatically, freeing up underwriters to focus on business development and writing larger and more complex risks.

Commercial lines growth has been supported by the successful brand campaign and nine new broker distribution deals going live, with a further seven to launch in 2025. This supports our confidence in the sustainability of the UK’s positive momentum.

The UK brand campaign has been widely recognised within the UK marketing and advertising industry this year, winning 18 separate industry awards to date for effectiveness, strategy, creativity and execution.

Importantly, we have seen tangible benefits from the campaign, with a 46% increase in branded search and an over 50% increase in click-through rates in UK Direct. In UK broker, feedback shows that intermediaries value the quality of the Hiscox brand on their panel.

Hiscox Europe

Hiscox Europe provides commercial insurance for micro- to medium-sized businesses, especially in the growing technology and non-regulated business sectors, and personal lines cover including high-value household, fine art and classic car.

Hiscox Europe ICWP increased by 7.6% in constant currency to $656.5 million (2023: $606.7 million). The business continues to expand its distribution, our pan-European partnership with a leading specialist digital MGA is now live and a new bancassurance relationship with one of the largest banks in Iberia launched in the fourth quarter.

Our technology transformation remains on track, building scalable infrastructure across Europe. Germany is fully live on the core administration system, and in France, commercial business is also live on the new system while work is underway to onboard APC. We also launched new distribution portals in France, Germany and Iberia which provide enhanced self-service functionality and a better customer journey, allowing the business to benefit from an improved quote-to-bind ratio, more efficient customer interactions, and greater speed to market of new propositions.

Hiscox USA1

Hiscox USA focuses on underwriting commercial risks, with distribution through brokers, partners and direct-to-consumer using a wide range of trading models – traditional, service centre, portals and application programming interfaces (APIs). Our aspiration is to build America’s leading small business insurer.

Hiscox USA ICWP increased by 2.5%, with sustained growth in US DPD offset by US broker contraction.

US DPD grew by 7.6% to $542.7 million (2023: $504.4 million). The direct business grew at a double-digit rate, while partnerships achieved robust

In 2024, we won nine new distribution deals in the UK, signed our first multi‑country deal with a leading digital MGA in Europe, and onboarded 17 new digital partners in the USA.”

Hiscox Retail

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growth, albeit at a lower rate, as the trend of more moderate flows across some established partners from the second and third quarters persisted into the fourth quarter. The majority of partners continue to deliver good levels of growth and we continue to expand and diversify our network with, 17 new partners onboarded in 2024.

US broker ICWP decreased by 4.0% to $378.2 million (2023: $393.8 million). The contraction is narrowing, with growth emerging in some of the largest lines. To accelerate growth, we have launched a number of initiatives aimed at improving retention and conversion rates as well as creating more opportunities for cross-selling products.

Hiscox Asia

On 18 December 2024, Hiscox completed the sale of DirectAsia Thailand. The remainder of the DirectAsia business is non-core for the Group.

Hiscox London Market1

Hiscox London Market uses the global licences, distribution network, and credit rating of Lloyd’s to insure clients throughout the world.

Hiscox London Market ICWP of

$1,229.5 million (2023: $1,254.6 million) declined by 2.0%, reflecting our proactive cycle management within casualty and exit from the space market. The drag from these reduced in the fourth quarter as the business returned to growth, driven by attractive market opportunities in property and crisis management. Rate increases for the year were 2%, with cumulative rate increases of 74% since 2018.

Growth in property has been driven

by commercial lines, where rate has increased by 8%, partially offset by flood, following the decision not to renew a binder. This capacity has since been fully redeployed and will earn through over the course of 2025. Overall, despite increasing competition leading to some rate softening, market conditions remain attractive.

Within crisis management, there has been significant growth in terrorism, driven by increasing demand and improving rates. With 57% of our sabotage and terrorism business now supported by our AI-enhanced lead underwriting solution, our team can spend more time on business development and underwriting more complex risks within the market. The wider roll-out of the tool is progressing well and we have started to implement the capabilities in major property with the aim of launching an AI-enhanced solution in 2025. The success of our AI adoption has been recognised within the market, with the Hiscox/Google Cloud collaboration winning ‘Excellence in AI’ at the British Insurance Technology Awards.

Marine, energy and specialty was impacted by our decision to reduce our line size in space before ultimately exiting the class due to terms and conditions lagging the evolving nature and complexity of the risk. In casualty, we continue to manage the cycle following rate reductions of 8% in cyber and 9% in D&O, while using improving rate in general liability to decrease line size and reduce exposures.

The undiscounted combined ratio of 88.6% (2023: 83.7%) marks the fifth consecutive year that Hiscox

1K&R business written through Syndicate 33 has been transferred from Hiscox USA to Hiscox London Market. 2023 financials have been restated to report on a consistent basis.

With 57% of our sabotage and terrorism business now supported by our AI-enhanced lead underwriting solution, our team can spend more time on business development and underwriting more complex risks within the market.”

Hiscox London Market

Hear more from Aki on our 2024 full-year results.

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London Market has reported an undiscounted combined ratio in the 80s, achieved despite the backdrop of an active loss year, including Hurricanes Milton and Helene, and a number of man-made losses.

Hiscox Re & ILS

Hiscox Re & ILS comprises the Group’s reinsurance businesses in London and Bermuda and insurance-linked securities (ILS) activity written through Hiscox ILS.

Hiscox Re & ILS surpassed the $1 billion ICWP mark as the business grew by 4.7% to $1,032.8 million (2023: $986.3 million). Net ICWP grew by 11.1% to $499.3 million (2023: $449.6 million), as the business deployed additional capital into attractive market conditions. Consistent with our strategy, net ICWP has more than doubled since 2020 as the business has grown into the hardening market.

The insurance service result of $165.7 million (2023: $136.1 million) and an undiscounted combined ratio of 69.0% (2023: 69.8%) reflect another year of excellent performance. Natural catastrophe losses were within expectations despite a high number of loss events.

The market remained disciplined throughout 2024, with attachment points holding, terms and conditions stable, and rates broadly flat following cumulative rate increases of 90% since 2018. January 2025 renewals were more competitive as capital, typically in the form of retained earnings, pursued growth. This has had an impact on the market, with rates down 8% at the important 1 January renewals,

although attachment points and terms and conditions have remained broadly stable. Market conditions, coming from the significant highs of 2023 and 2024, remain attractive and we have deployed additional capital into the opportunities that provide the best risk-adjusted returns for the portfolio.

ILS assets under management (AUM) as at 1 January 2025 was $1.4 billion (1 January 2024: $1.6 billion) following planned capital returns and new inflows of $460 million. In addition, our third-party capital strategy benefitted from growth in outwards quota share capacity. This third-party capital support, alongside higher performance fees following excellent underwriting results in both 2023 and 2024, has resulted in record fee income, increasing by 26% to $128.2 million (2023: $101.7 million), supporting strong profit delivery and further enhancing the return on equity.

Claims

For the year, we have set aside $1.6 billion for (re)insurance claims2, $117 million more than in 2023 due to a more active loss environment, particularly impacting the London Market business. 2024 was an active natural catastrophe year, with five hurricanes making landfall in the USA, flooding in Spain, Germany and central Europe, and a number of weather events in Canada. Natural catastrophe losses were within expectations, with a reduction in our initial loss estimate from Hurricane Milton offset by an increase in the amounts reserved for certain other 2024 loss events.

In addition, there were a number of ­man‑made losses that affected our big‑ticket business in 2024. These included a net loss of $28 million from

the MV Dali collision in Baltimore and a number of small- to mid-size events.

The start of 2025 saw several wildfires impact the Greater Los Angeles area, causing a tragic loss of life and widespread destruction. We extend our sympathies to our customers and to all of those impacted by these events.

The Group estimates a net loss from the wildfires of around $170 million, at an industry loss of $40 billion. This event is largely a reinsurance loss with $150 million expected to be recognised in Hiscox Re & ILS, and $10 million in each of Hiscox London Market and Hiscox Retail. Our estimate, which will be booked in the first quarter of 2025, includes reinstatement premiums and does not make any allowance for subrogation.

Hiscox exists to support our customers at times like this and we firmly believe that a high-quality claims service is essential to help them get back on their feet as quickly as possible. We continually monitor our claims performance through a range of metrics and targets including our Retail claims transactional net promoter score (Retail claims NPS)3. In 2024, the Group achieved an exceptional Retail claims NPS of 72%, a three percentage point improvement on the already excellent result in 2023.

Strong foundations

Reserves

We have a conservative reserving philosophy that has consistently produced positive reserve development

Consistent with our strategy, net ICWP has more than doubled since 2020 as the business has grown into the hardening market.”

Hiscox Re & ILS

2Undiscounted 2024 accident year estimate of ultimate claims cost, net of reinsurance.

3As measured by an independent third party across the UK, Europe and US Retail businesses.

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over a long period of time. In 2024, net reserve releases were again broad‑based, from multiple vintages and classes of business, aggregating to $145.5 million (2023: $122.8 million). As at 31 December 2024, the Group’s net reserves were at the 83% confidence level (2023: 83%) with a risk adjustment above best estimate of $267.5 million4 (2023: $272.9 million4).

Hiscox continues to benefit from legacy portfolio transfers (LPTs) which protect the Group from inflationary and other pressures for 37% of gross casualty reserves for 2019 and prior years. Where appropriate, we will pursue similar transactions to manage volatility and optimise capital.

The Group’s January 2025 outwards reinsurance placements benefitted from our recent strong underwriting results and ongoing quality of the book, resulting in a favourable outcome for the overall renewal programme. Against this backdrop, the Group took the opportunity to improve capital efficiency and reduce exposure to extreme North America earthquake and windstorm events, issuing a $200 million catastrophe bond in February 2025 to complement the $125 million catastrophe bond issued in December 2023. The capital benefit of the new catastrophe bond is not included in the BSCR ratio as at 31 December 2024.

Capital

The Group remains well capitalised, with an estimated BSCR ratio of 225% at 31 December 2024. Our diversified

Our diversified business model and the growing contribution of earnings from our Retail business creates the flexibility to pursue an ambitious growth agenda and to step-up our progressive dividend.”

Capital

Projected capital requirement

Rating agency and BSCR assessments shown are internal Hiscox assessments of the capital requirements based on year-end 2024. Hiscox uses the internally developed Hiscox integrated capital model to assess its own capital needs on both a trading (economic) and purely regulatory basis. All capital requirements have been normalised with respect to variations in the allowable capital in each assessment for comparison to a consistent available capital figure. The available capital figure basis is reflective of IFRS 17 and comprises net tangible assets and subordinated debt. Benefit of IFRS 17 discounting is allowed for within the internal capital model position.

4Allows for the reclassification of LPT recoveries into claims.

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business model – with very strong performance in big-ticket and a growing contribution of earnings from our Retail business – creates the flexibility to pursue an ambitious growth agenda and to step-up our progressive dividend with a final ordinary dividend of 29.9 cents per share, an increase of 19.6% from 2023.

The record date for the dividend will be 25 April 2025 and the payment date will be 9 June 2025. The Board proposes to offer a Scrip alternative, under the terms and conditions of the Group’s 2025 Scrip Dividend Scheme, which will be made available when the AGM notice is published and will be subject to shareholder approval at the AGM. The last date for receipt of Scrip elections will be 19 May 2025 and the reference price will be announced on 28 May 2025.

The strong results achieved in 2024, with an excellent ROE and significant capital generation, allow for another special capital return of $175 million to shareholders, by means of a share buyback, consistent with our commitment to return excess capital to investors. Our total capital return is equivalent to 16 percentage points of the 2024 year-end BSCR ratio.

Following updated guidance from the Bermuda Monetary Authority, the Group has included 20% of the value of the $155 million DTA relating to Bermuda corporate income tax in the 2024 estimated BSCR. Previously none of this DTA was recognised within capital.

The Group’s estimated pro-forma BSCR, adjusted for the impact of the year‑end capital returns and the California wildfires, is 198%5, well in

excess of the level required for the S&P ‘A’ rating. This would remain the case even following an extreme stress scenario.

Liquidity

The Group, at the holding company level, continues to retain a significant level of liquidity, with fungible assets in excess of $1 billion, comprised of liquid assets and undrawn borrowing facilities. A full-year 2024 leverage6 for the Group on a pro-forma basis post share buyback of $175 million is 15.7%, comfortably within the range that the Group chooses to operate in.

Investments

The investment result for the year was $383.9 million (2023: $384.4 million), or a return of 4.8% (2023: 5.2%). Group invested assets as at 31 December 2024 were $8.2 billion (2023: $8.0 billion).

Despite geopolitical uncertainty, economic growth was resilient (although slowing), and inflation stabilised at, or near to, policy targets for many developed markets, so central banks continued to cut rates in the fourth quarter. Against this background, US treasury yields ended the year close to where they started, although tightening credit spreads drove bond yields down, resulting in an improved performance in the second half of the year.

Returns from coupons, cash and cash equivalents have continued to grow, as higher yields have earned through. At 31 December 2024, the Group’s bond portfolio reinvestment yield was 4.6% and a duration of 1.8 years. The bond portfolio remains conservatively positioned, with an average credit rating of ‘A’. We have modestly increased the allocation

to private credit funds in the year to diversify the portfolio and incrementally add more stable returns.

Tax

Bermuda’s Corporate Income Tax (BCIT) came into effect on 1 January 2025, with a 15% tax rate applicable. In anticipation of this, the Group recognised a DTA of $155 million which would mitigate the cash tax impact over ten years.

On 15 January 2025, the OECD published guidance, advising that 80% of the DTA granted under the BCIT will not be recognised for calculating global minimum tax (GMT). As a result, the Group is likely to be obligated to pay additional tax of up to 80% of the DTA, spread over eight years, from 2027. Under current IFRS requirements, the Bermuda DTA must be maintained while it provides a tax benefit in Bermuda, but no offsetting deferred tax liability can be recognised in anticipation of future GMT payable (instead this will be booked as current tax on an arising basis).

The introduction of BCIT and GMT is expected to increase the Group’s effective tax rate to a range of 15%-20%.

Outlook

Over the last 20 years, our Retail business has grown fivefold organically, to over $2.5 billion of premium in 2024, yet the structural growth opportunity ahead remains immense. The expectation of long-term, compounding growth in all of our Retail markets is unchanged. Our strategy is based on our entrepreneurial business-building

5Does not include expected capital generation in 2025.

6Leverage defined as borrowings over borrowings and shareholder equity.

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We were all deeply shocked and saddened by the sudden and tragic death of our Chair, Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, in the sinking of the Bayesian off the coast of Sicily on 19 August 2024.

Jonathan began his career at Arthur Andersen, becoming a Partner during his tenure. In 1995, he joined FTSE 100 insurer, Prudential plc, initially as Chief Financial Officer, and subsequently became Chief Executive Officer from 2000 to 2005. From 2006 to 2012, Jonathan took on the role of Operating Partner at Cerberus Capital Management, the US private equity and alternative investor.

From 2012 onwards, following over 25 years in executive roles across financial services, Jonathan pursued a highly successful portfolio career

with a range of largely financial services companies, and became a seasoned board director. This included non‑executive roles as Chair of Morgan Stanley International, DWF Group plc, SDL Group Holdings Limited and Arrow Global Group, Senior Independent Director at Hargreaves Lansdown plc, Audit Committee Chair of Autonomy Systems and, from 2023, Chair of Hiscox.

During his time with us, we benefitted immensely from Jonathan’s generosity and wisdom. Jonathan was widely recognised for his deep experience across our industry and in the broader business arena which, combined with his personal values, made him both an excellent Chair of our business and a person we were proud to know and work with.

Jonathan was as passionate about giving back as he was about business, having served as Trustee and Honorary Treasurer at the NSPCC, and received an MBE for voluntary services to children and young people in 2017. At Hiscox, he chaired our charitable trust, the Hiscox Foundation.

His advice and support were immensely valuable to many, both at Hiscox and beyond. He is dearly missed.

In memory of Jonathan Bloomer

1954-2024

culture, our specialist underwriting, brand strength and use of technology to provide superb products to our customers while reducing friction and costs in the process. This allows Hiscox to capitalise on societal trends, including increasing digital adoption, strong new business formation, and the emergence of new professions and risks.

In recent years we materially improved our Retail platform, we have added new leadership, reinvigorated our brand, re-platformed our technology, expanded our distribution and materially added to our capabilities. All of these are leading to positive momentum in growth and high-quality earnings. I, along with the leaders of each of the Retail businesses, look forward to providing more detail on how we will capture the significant growth opportunity ahead at our Retail‑focused capital markets day in May.

In 2025, I expect positive momentum to continue building while maintaining underwriting discipline, with Hiscox Retail growth of above 6% in constant currency. Hiscox London Market is expected to return to growth, given favourable market conditions, as we benefit from new product launches and as the one-off impacts of the 2024 binder non-renewal recede. In Hiscox Re & ILS, the Group will continue to deploy incremental capital into the attractive market conditions, including some non‑catastrophe lines.

Aki Hussain

Group Chief Executive Officer

26 February 2025

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States

of

play

Mary Boyd, Chief Executive Officer of Hiscox USA, on the schoolbook that changed her life, the importance of building retail capabilities, and the competitive nature of the small business insurance sector.

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Q: What inspired you to build a career in the insurance industry?

A: I double-majored in applied maths and economics and began my career as an actuarial trainee, but the story of how I discovered the actuarial profession goes all the way back to high school. I got this assignment, ‘what do you want to be when you grow up?’. So I went to the library, opened a book about careers and started at ‘A’. First up was ‘accountant’, and I absolutely didn’t want to be an accountant, but then I saw ‘actuary’. It said: “These individuals apply math to solve business problems. For insurance companies, they set the price of products. Senior actuaries can even go on to lead companies.” That really stood out to me and sounded appealing.

Q: What was your impression of Hiscox before you joined?

A: Hiscox had long ago earned my respect for its underwriting excellence, creativity and longevity – especially its 100-year heritage at Lloyd’s. When I was at ACE as the President of the Private Risk Services (high net worth personal insurance) division, and we expanded our products into the UK, Hiscox was the form I studied as a new entrant in that space, so I have respected Hiscox enormously for quite some time.

Q: And now you’re here, how would you sum up the business?

A: The thing that strikes me most is the size of the opportunity for us – it’s

enormous. There is so much market share for us still to capture in the small business space, and so much potential. We have work to do and investments we will make in strategic capabilities to fully realise that opportunity, but as one part of a larger business we have both the global strength of the Hiscox Group and the local focus of the US division to go for growth and that’s exciting.

Q: Tell us more about the capabilities you think need to be developed. What are they?

A: Our ambition has always been to build America’s leading small business insurer. To achieve that, we will bolster our capabilities rooted in applying data and analytics to product manufacturing, intuitive user

Mary Boyd joined us as Chief Executive Officer of Hiscox USA in June 2024. A US national, Mary came to Hiscox from Plymouth Rock Assurance, a leading home and auto insurance provider, whose independent agency business she had run since 2018. Having built her career in US insurance, Mary has extensive experience of growing, transforming and innovating businesses in this market.

18

Number of years we’ve been providing specialist products for small- and medium-sized businesses in the USA.

49

Number of US states we currently operate in.

33m

Huge market opportunity, with over 33 million small businesses in the USA.

Key stats

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The benefit we have is that Hiscox USA was a first‑mover in digital experiences, automated underwriting and quoting, and that gives us a real advantage; but we cannot rest on our laurels which is why we continue to build our next‑level capabilities.”

experiences, and highly scalable and sophisticated underwriting – connecting the components of deals and distribution in a way that’s going to get value out of our business and create advantage. At Hiscox, we call that ‘retail’, an execution capability I’ve developed a deep and wide experience of over the course of my career.

Aki puts it very well when he says “Retail is detail”. When a classically trained underwriter assesses a piece of business, they try to understand the client, the geography, the exposure, the usage, the source of the business, so that they can understand the quality of the various risks. For product manufacturing, we do the same thing for millions of different data points at the same time, looking for the patterns and trends in the data, then aligning them to develop the right price to properly insure that customer’s risk.

The benefit we have is that Hiscox USA was a first‑mover in digital experiences, automated underwriting and quoting, and that gives us a real advantage; but we cannot rest on our laurels which is why we continue to build our next‑level capabilities. That use of data and tech is not specific to our US operations, so we benefit from the fact that each of our business

units also experiments and innovates locally, then can compare and share learnings with each other. This happens at all levels in the organisation including, of course, at the Group Executive Committee which I am part of, and I find that kind of knowledge‑sharing truly valuable.

Q: Does investment in those analytical capabilities have an impact on business through partners and brokers as well as the direct and digital channels?

A: Actually, it does. It has a significant impact. Every one of the agencies and brokers out there today in the small business space has its own website. They’re all doing business electronically, they probably

already have quoting on their websites for personal insurance, and they’ll try to extend that to getting quotes or service requests for the simpler commercial business. The investments we have made, and continue to make, mean we can offer our partners and brokers the seamless service they expect.

Q: In such a vast, competitive marketplace how can you ensure the Hiscox brand punches above its weight?

A: We think about this a lot and we do a considerable amount for a brand of our size. Right now we trade through brokers, partners and direct-to-consumer and we want customers to be able to access us in a way that works for them. So that means traditional ways of trading, as well as through our service centres, portals and via application programming interfaces or APIs.

Q: How would you summarise life at Hiscox?

A: It’s fun, it’s fast-paced and, because it’s so supportive, there’s a palpable sense of community. The insurance business can be complex and challenging but what I see here is a lot of collaboration, a lot of energy, to solve any challenges together. That’s the strength of the Group again – there’s always

someone, somewhere, who’s been there and done that and that’s where the power of knowledge-sharing comes back in. We’re not immune to challenges but when there’s a problem, we call it out, because in conquering it we get stronger. We work together on it and, when doing it that way, we win together every single time. That gives us the energy and confidence to get to the next problem. Our teams have always risen to the occasion when given a challenge. Not once have they shrunk away from it. The folks we have here are smart, they’re hardworking, they care about our mission, they’re willing to be creative, and they’re fearless. It’s inspiring.

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Seeing the bigger picture

Risk strategy

Our robust risk strategy positions us to capture the upside of the risks we pursue and effectively manage the downside of the risks to which we are exposed. It is based on three key principles:

dwe maintain underwriting discipline;

dwe seek balance and diversification through the underwriting cycle;

dwe are transparent in our approach to risk, which allows us to continually improve awareness and hone our response.

Risk management framework

The Group takes an enterprise-wide approach to managing risk. The risk management framework provides a controlled system for identifying, measuring, managing, monitoring and reporting risk across the Group. The framework includes coverage of strategic, insurance, market, credit and operational risks. It supports innovative and disciplined underwriting across many different classes of insurance by guiding our appetite and tolerance for risk.

Exposures are monitored and evaluated both within the business units and at Group level to assess the overall level of risk being taken and the mitigation approaches being used. We consider how different exposures and risk types interact, and whether these may result in correlations, concentrations or dependencies. The objective is to optimise risk-return decision-making while managing total exposure, and in doing so remain within the parameters set by the Board.

The risk management framework is underpinned by a system of internal control, which provides a proportionate and consistent system for designing, implementing, operating

Risk management

Our core business is to take risk where it is adequately rewarded to meet shareholders’ expectations, and our success is dependent on how well we understand and manage our exposures to key risks.

Fabrice Brossart

Group Chief Risk Officer

Owns risk and controls

Responsible for ownership and management of risks on a day‑to‑day basis.

Consists of everyone at every level in the organisation, as all have responsibility for risk management at an operational level.

Assesses, challenges and advises on risk objectively

Provides independent oversight, challenge and support to the first line of defence.

Consists of the Group risk team and the compliance team.

Provides independent assurance of risk control

Provides independent assurance to the Board that risks are being managed in line with approved policies, appetite, frameworks and processes, and helps verify that the system of internal control is effective.

Consists of the internal audit function.

Three lines of defence

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and assessing the controls that manage our key risks. This framework is regularly reviewed and enhanced to reflect evolving practice in risk management and governance. During 2024, we have continued to maintain and further strengthen our system of internal control including through the implementation of a new governance, risk and controls tool.

Risk appetite

The risk appetite sets out the nature and degree of risk the Group is prepared to take to meet its strategic objectives and business plan. It forms the basis of our exposure management and is monitored throughout the year.

Our risk appetite is set out in risk appetite statements, which outline the level of risk we are willing to assume, both by type and at an aggregate level.

Risk appetites, which are set for the Group as a whole and for each of our insurance carriers, are reviewed annually, enabling us to respond to internal and external factors such as the growth or reduction of an area of the business, or changes in the underwriting cycle that may have an impact on capacity and rates.

Risk management across the business

The Group coordinates risk management roles and responsibilities across three lines of defence. These are set out in the model on page 42. We now have Chief Risk Officers in place for each of our business units, and risk is also overseen and managed by formal and informal committees and working groups across the first and second lines of defence. These focus on specific risks such as catastrophe, cyber, casualty, sustainability, reserving, technology,

investments and credit, as well as emerging risks. The Group Risk and Capital Committee and the Group Underwriting Review Committee are sub-committees of the Risk Committee of the Board and make wider decisions on risk. More information on these Committees can be found on pages 81 to 82.

The Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA) process

The Group’s ORSA process involves a self-assessment of the risk mitigation and capital resources

needed to achieve the strategic objectives of the Group and relevant insurance carriers on a current and forward-looking basis, while remaining solvent, given their risk profiles. The annual process includes multi-disciplinary teams from across the business, such as capital, finance and business planning.

The role of the Board in risk management

The Board is at the heart of risk governance and is responsible for setting the Group’s risk strategy and appetite,

Risk management framework

Understanding and managing the significant exposures we face.

Hiscox Own Risk and Solvency Assessment (ORSA) framework

The Group’s ORSA process is an evolution of its long-standing risk
management and capital assessment processes.

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and for overseeing risk management including the risk management framework. The Risk Committee of the Board advises on how best to manage the Group’s risk profile by reviewing the effectiveness of risk management activities and monitoring the Group’s risk exposures, to inform Board decisions. More information on the Risk Committee can be found on pages 114 to 115.

The role of the Group risk team in risk management

The Group risk team is responsible

for designing and overseeing the implementation and continual improvement of the risk management framework. The team is led by the Group Chief Risk Officer who reports to the Group Chief Executive Officer and the Risk Committee of the Board.

The team works with the first-line business units and transversal functions to understand how they manage risks and whether they need to make changes in their approach. It is also responsible for monitoring

how the business goes about meeting regulatory expectations around enterprise risk management.

The second-line Group risk and compliance function is organised into dedicated business unit and Group‑level teams, providing proximity to the business while enabling the provision of critical challenge to the business and ensuring robust risk management oversight.

As the use of AI at Hiscox grows in scale and sophistication, 2024 saw the adoption of a set of processes and controls designed to clarify the Group’s approach to this rapidly evolving technology. “Our brief was to create a solid governance framework that meets our regulators’ expectations but isn’t so

rigid that it stifles innovation,” says Charlotte Paterson, Chief Risk Officer for Hiscox London Market.

The new AI standard is built on four distinct pillars. “The first covers governance including responsible use of AI: aligning with regulation, avoiding biases, checking the input relative to the output,” explains Charlotte. The second pillar is risk and control. “We systematically work through all the main risk categories and ask: what could go wrong? and how would we mitigate those risks?”

The third relates to model oversight, which is key given the speed of change surrounding AI. “We’ve done a huge amount of testing for the models that are in play today, but as those are replaced, what do we do? How do we make sure that

version 2.0 delivers the same quality of outcomes?”

The final piece is about people and culture. AI has the potential to radically alter working patterns. “How do people respond to that? How does it change our performance management, training and skills? Is there a risk that people become overly reliant on these tools? And what happens if it all breaks down and we suddenly need to go back to a previous way of working?”

The Group’s new AI governance and oversight framework will evolve in line with technology and regulation, but for now it is supporting a number of AI use cases across the business.

For more on our use of AI, see pages 48 to 51.

Risk management in action:

creating an AI governance and oversight framework

Charlotte Paterson

Chief Risk Officer

Hiscox London Market

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Casualty extreme loss scenarios

As our casualty businesses continue to grow, we develop extreme loss scenarios to better understand and manage the associated risks. Losses in the region of $75‑$950 million could be suffered in the following extreme scenarios:

*Losses spread over multiple years.

†Losses incurred from non-cyber product lines from a cyber event.

‡As a point of comparison.

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Property extreme loss scenarios

Boxplot and whisker diagram of modelled Hiscox Ltd net loss ($m) January 2025.

Stress tests and reverse stress tests are regularly performed and reported on to the Risk Committee of the Board.
These include climate-related scenarios such as those shown in the chart below.

This chart shows a modelled range of net loss the Group might expect from any one catastrophe event.
The white on the red bars depicts the modelled mean loss.

The return period is the frequency at which an industry insured loss of a certain amount or greater is likely to occur.
For example, an event with a return period of 20 years would be expected to occur on average five times in 100 years.

JP EQ – Japanese earthquake

JP WS – Japanese windstorm

EU WS – European windstorm

US EQ – United States earthquake

US WS – United States windstorm

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Intelligent

insurance

How Hiscox is using technology and data to differentiate its offering.

The inexorable rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the hot topics of our time. And according to Chris Loake, Group Chief Information Officer at Hiscox, the next step in its evolution will be thanks to the sheer breadth of its adoption. “AI will be in everything,” he says. “We won’t even distinguish it as a separate technology.”

For Hiscox, this means technology working hand in glove with humans. “The nexus of human and AI interaction is where we see the future world of work. Fundamental roles will remain the same, but with everything sped up – supercharged by technology.”

That journey is already well underway at Hiscox. “We have a unique set of strengths and AI technology gives us the chance to double down on them,” says Chris. “We’re looking for things

that strengthen our risk selection, improve customer experiences, and make us faster and more efficient.”

The most ambitious of these projects so far has been in Hiscox London Market, thanks to the creation – in collaboration with Google Cloud – of the first AI‑enhanced lead underwriting model in the London Market.

“The upfront challenge was a simple one: how could we integrate generative AI into the big-ticket underwriting process so that some of our underwriters’ valuable time could be liberated for more productive, less painstaking tasks,” says Melissa Dudley, a Product Manager within Hiscox London Market and part of the core project team.

“We’d been thinking about this for a while when Google approached us about working

with their Google Cloud technologies. We decided to do a ten-week proof of concept to see what we could do together. It was fun, it was experimental, and it worked even better than we anticipated.”

A combined team of underwriters, risk and technology experts from both companies created a system capable of analysing a broker’s request, assessing the risk, calculating a price, and generating an email back to the broker, ready for the underwriter to review. The entire process, which went live last August after extensive testing, reduced the average time to quote from several days to just a few minutes.

Laying the foundations

According to Melissa, that’s just the beginning. As well as having an immediate impact on the working

patterns of underwriters, the Google Cloud project is “laying the foundation” for future developments. “Prompting a large language model is incredibly complex – it really is an artform,” she explains. “We started with our sabotage and terrorism lines, but over time we’ll layer on more capabilities, quote more risks, and move onto other, more complex lines of business. The potential to create a more efficient augmented underwriting process and better customer service – all by freeing up our experts to do what they do best – is immense.”

It’s a similar story in Hiscox UK, where the introduction of an AI-powered new business automation solution – combined with existing digital trading capabilities – is reducing quote handling times by up to 40% by automating data extraction and large parts of the quote process.

Brokers are responded to quicker, and underwriters spend less time declining out‑of-appetite submissions and more time on larger or more complex risks.

There are other efficiencies too, and the UK team has also been busy turning all of its knowledge bases and underwriting guides into a generative AI-powered digital assistant that colleagues can use to quickly problem-solve. It’s a process that’s begun in the UK, but is likely to be replicated in other areas over time.

Elsewhere in the business, the Hiscox Europe technology team has been experimenting with Microsoft’s Open AI platform. “We started with a question: what are the activities where true automation can both improve the productivity of our underwriters and claims managers, and reduce our expense ratio?” says Gonçalo Carvalho, Chief Technology Officer of Hiscox Europe.

The European team’s two use cases – one for underwriting, one for claims – presented a lower level of complexity than the London Market project, but with the same overarching aim: automating and accelerating the analysis of information received from customers or brokers, but this time within the retail business. While the underwriting use case focuses on automating more of the process to quote, driving faster response times and freeing up underwriter time for more complex cases, the claims use case focuses on streamlining claims handling protocols –

getting to a coverage decision quicker and ultimately paying claims even faster.

The underwriting and claims proofs of concept, which are being tested in Ireland and Spain respectively, are set to go live in 2025. “Training the models, seeing how they react to the inputs, increasing the guardrails – we’ve worked through all of this on our journey over the past few months. We asked ourselves, how do we improve the results? How do we protect the model from hallucination?” Gonçalo says. He also touches on a broader lesson: “We started with the idea that AI will solve all these problems. But what we learned throughout the process is that AI alone isn’t the answer – it is the mix of technologies that creates the solution.”

Adaptable to change

This echoes a point that Chris makes when outlining the Group’s evolving technology strategy. “Our strategy can’t all be about groundbreaking new tech,” says Chris. “It’s about how we develop our architecture, how we use the things that

already exist. Everything has to be more flexible and adaptable to change if we’re going to have the agility needed to deliver these new solutions.”

It’s a challenge that holds particular pertinence to Gonçalo and his team. Hiscox Europe has a dedicated presence in seven different countries, and it is crucial to maintain the unique character of each country’s offering without inhibiting the flow of ideas and innovation across borders.

Striking the balance between global innovation and consistency, and local expertise, is one of the reasons why Hiscox expanded its Lisbon Tech Hub, a global technology centre of excellence, in 2024. The concentration of technological expertise in Lisbon enhances the coordination and momentum of change across the whole Group in support of a relentless drive to deliver leading‑edge customer service and broker experience. 2024 saw the creation of 60 new data and technology

roles across software engineering, software quality, cloud management, data engineering, data science, and cyber security.

Hiscox has, of course, been generating, sourcing and interrogating vast quantities of data for decades – such analysis is central to all insurance underwriting and claims management – but the insurer now sees an opportunity for data to become a true ‘business differentiator’.

As Shali Vasudeva, the Group’s new Chief Operations and Technology Officer, explains: “The reality is that delivering on our strategic objectives requires us to have the right data, be able to generate the right insights, and have the capacity to act on those insights.

“We have a Group-wide data and analytics strategy to drive business value and accelerate growth. As part of that, we’re investing in modern data platforms and data management capabilities to make sure we’re ready to take advantage of the full potential AI offers. This strategy, combined with our state-of-the-art data platforms and deep

We started with the idea that AI will solve all these problems. But what we learned throughout the process is that AI alone isn’t the answer – it is the mix of technologies that creates the solution.”

Gonçalo Carvalho

Chief Technology Officer

Hiscox Europe

AI will be in everything. We won’t even distinguish it as a separate technology.”

Chris Loake

Group Chief Information Officer

The intent is to increase the pace of innovation while shortening implementation times for our data science use cases, of which there are many.”

Catherine Frost

Chief Operations Officer

Hiscox UK

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partnerships with global leaders in AI, mean we can experiment at scale, rapidly learn what works, and build reusable AI-powered solutions with the potential to benefit multiple parts of the business.”

A good example of this thinking is in Hiscox UK where, over the last 18 months, the team has built and tested a new single data platform that brings together customer, broker, policy and operational data from across the UK business in a cohesive and consumable way. It’s an approach that’s already providing colleagues with access to much richer data and insights, with plans to include more data sources in 2025.

“The intent,” says Catherine Frost, Hiscox UK Chief Operations Officer, “is to increase the pace of innovation while shortening implementation times for our data science use cases, of which there are many.”

By coordinating the development and deployment of our data, analytics and AI capabilities across the Group, Hiscox aims to mature the technical capabilities of the Group’s data platforms, increase the volume of data available, and expand its usage. But that’s not all. While standardising the strategic approach to data, the Group is also looking to devolve much of the operational responsibility and increase the depth and breadth of data skills across the business. “We’re moving towards what we call ‘self-service’ – putting

the power of our data and analytics into the hands of the people who use it on a day-to-day basis,” Shali says. “Instead of relying on a team to generate reports or insight for you, and refresh it every time you need an update, we will give more of our people the capabilities to do it themselves.”

Shali reiterates the importance of identifying the right use cases for the application of AI to solve specific business problems. But that also requires the simultaneous development of architecture that will enable those solutions to be propagated in a faster, more efficient, and more standardised way. “Once we solve a problem in one part of the business, either the whole solution or components of that solution will become available to everyone else across the Group, or we use the components as building blocks for something bigger, more complex, and more valuable.”

Having systematically identified, validated and

prioritised a wide range of AI use cases across all parts of the business in 2024, from finance to underwriting to claims, a further portfolio of AI-enabled Hiscox business solutions will be developed and rolled out in 2025.

“We’re as thoughtful about what we don’t do as what we do develop,” Chris says. “We want to be close to the leading edge, but not so far ahead that we’re wasting time on areas that the product vendors are ultimately going to innovate for us. There’s no point building expensive workarounds to problems that will soon disappear.” He illustrates this with a story from the start of the London Market project, when the context window of the AI model – the amount of text it was able to receive as a single input – was too small. “We had to do what’s called ‘semantic chunking’, where you break the data out into different blocks, and that took time, but the latest versions of the AI models have larger context windows.”

Close relationships

Finding the optimal pace of innovation has been significantly helped by the close relationships Hiscox has nurtured with global tech and AI leaders. “We’re building very deep technology partnerships, to the extent that I think we actually have relatively unparalleled access to highly specialist skills and thought leadership, as well as the ability to influence their product roadmaps and prioritisation of future capabilities to suit

our needs and those of our customers,” says Shali.

These technology partnerships are complemented by a drumbeat of quieter progress with foundational AI capabilities across the business. “We provide people with the tech so we can see what they can do with it,” Chris says. “Great ideas can come from anywhere in the organisation.”

During 2024, this included 1,000 users in different parts of the business trialling Microsoft Copilot, the AI ‘companion’ integrated within the Microsoft 365 suite. “We gave them the tech and the training and said: ‘Go and use this in your day-to-day lives and if you find something cool you can do with it, we’ll share it.’ We’re not blind to the fact that innovation will sometimes come from an individual who’s passionate about trying something out in their day job, and we’ve already had – and shared – some great use cases. Plus, if the future of tech sits at the nexus of human and AI, then why wouldn’t we give those humans a say?”

Our state-of-the-art data platforms and deep partnerships with global leaders in AI mean we can experiment at scale, rapidly learn what works, and build reusable AI-powered solutions with the potential to benefit multiple parts of the business.”

Shali Vasudeva

Group Chief Operations and Technology Officer

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Staying connected

Stakeholder engagement

We approach all of our stakeholder relationships professionally and pragmatically, and their inputs help to shape our business.

Steve Parry

Group Claims Director

As a global business, we have diverse stakeholders with diverse interests, so understanding what matters most to them through regular engagement is an important part of our decision‑making processes.

We engage with stakeholders at every level, including Board level, to build positive relationships, respond to their areas of interest, and ensure their expectations of Hiscox are met.

Our key stakeholder relationships will be managed in different parts of

the business, and in different ways. However, they are united by a common Hiscox approach, driven by our values, and each has an appropriate degree of Executive involvement and Board oversight.

Our ecosystem of stakeholders

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Corporate governance and business ethics.

Resilience to volatility – market, political, economic, social, other.

How the business engages with shareholders

dOur Group Chief Executive Officer, Group Chief Financial Officer and Director of Investor Relations meet with existing shareholders, potential investors and research analysts regularly to discuss our strategy, trading conditions, business performance, and other factors affecting our operations.

dAnnual investor roadshows each year in the UK, USA, Europe and the Middle East.

dParticipation in a range of investor conferences across regions.

dWe report to the market on Company performance four times per year, with interim and preliminary results also shared via an online webcast which is open to capital markets stakeholders to attend. These materials are available on our corporate website and as an email alert for subscribers.

dWe publish our Annual Report and Accounts each March, giving shareholders a more detailed view of the business. In 2024,

we engaged with shareholders on their preferences for receiving this report and other statutory disclosures from us, which resulted in more shareholders opting for digital communications.

How the Board engages with shareholders

dBoard members engage with shareholders as part of our AGM.

dBoard members engage with shareholders at other key governance moments, for example around remuneration policy review periods.

Outcomes of engagement and relevant KPIs

dAll 2024 AGM resolutions passed with a significant majority.

dDuring 2024, we held over 470 meetings with over 200 investors, representing approximately 75% of our issued share capital.

dOver the last ten years, we have returned $1.4 billion in capital to shareholders.

Shareholders

We maintain ongoing engagement with our shareholders, focusing on our clear strategy, strong underwriting discipline, and sound capital management.

*See Hiscox’s materiality map on page 59.

Relevant materiality area*

Customer and broker experience.

How the business engages with customers

dWe conduct both quantitative surveys and qualitative research with thousands of customers each year – including feedback after they have bought a product or made a claim – which help to continually improve our offering.

dWe measure the health of our brand through regular brand tracking surveys which assess consumer brand awareness and perception and inform marketing and sales activities.

dWe use a combination of customer insight and claims experience to develop our risk transfer products and risk mitigation tools. These include our cyber exposure calculator, the NCSC-approved cyber training we offer through our CyberClear Academy, and Leakbot – an early warning leak detection tool we offer all UK high-value home customers to help mitigate escape of water claims.

How the Board engages with customers

dThe Board receives updates on customer research and insight work, and on customer‑focused regulation as appropriate, for example, the UK’s Consumer Duty regulation.

Outcomes of engagement and relevant KPIs

dCustomer satisfaction scores – see page 27.

dPaid out $2 billion in claims to customers in 2024.

dClaims transactional net promoter score of 72 – see page 130.

Read more on pages
18 to 19.

Customers

We have almost 1.7 million retail customers worldwide and providing each of them with products they can rely on is what we are here for.

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Customer and broker experience.

How the business engages with brokers

dWe hold an annual preferred broker summit for our UK brokers, to share insight and expertise, and a London Market broker academy to educate and inform.

dWe also hold an annual claims insights day, hosted by our London Market claims team and providing junior claims brokers with informative sessions on our claims ethos and process, workshops led by loss adjusters and lawyers, and networking opportunities.

dEach year we measure broker satisfaction with our products and services, with the results informing future plans.

dWe participate in key industry events in every part of our broker-facing business, including BIBA, a UK insurance conference; the CIAB, a US marketplace meeting for commercial property and casualty brokers and insurers; and in our big-ticket businesses, Monte Carlo, Baden Baden, and RIMS.

dWe produce thought leadership that enhances our broker relationships and our position as experts in our chosen areas.

In 2024, this included our cyber readiness report which examines the cyber threat landscape, ‘HAT 100’ which explores key trends in the contemporary art market, and ‘Art and AI’ which examined emerging trends in AI‑generated art.

dWe conduct experiential broker events, which in 2024 included the ‘energy express’ – a unique train journey through the history of energy underwriting and its evolution as a result of the transition to net zero.

How the Board engages with brokers

dOur Executive Directors support our largest broker relationships, attending meetings and events throughout the year.

Outcomes of engagement and relevant KPIs

dBroker satisfaction scores.

d70 brokers attended our UK preferred broker summit in 2024.

d22 participants in our London Market broker academy in 2024.

d30 London Market brokers participated in our ‘energy express’ experiential event at Lloyd’s of London.

Brokers

The risks we write through brokers account for around 84% of our business, so we look to build strong and lasting relationships with those that share our values.

*See Hiscox’s materiality map on page 59.

Relevant materiality areas*

Being a great place to work.

Positively contributing to our communities.

How the business engages with colleagues

dRegular staff surveys on topics such as leadership, well-being, hybrid working and communication.

dAll-staff ‘connected’ interactive events sharing strategy updates, financial results, and news from across the Group.

dReal-time updates via our intranet, The Gallery, and newsletters that highlight work from around the Group including business unit performance, sustainability, charitable giving and volunteering, and brand and marketing.

How the Board engages with colleagues

dOur Employee Engagement Network is a representative group of colleagues from around the world, convenes approximately twice a year, and is chaired by Independent Non Executive Director, Anne MacDonald. Topics covered in 2024 included culture and leadership, use of technology and data, business planning and future ambitions.

Reports from these sessions are shared annually with the Board and inform Board decision-making.

dLtd and subsidiary Board members join over 160 of our senior team from around the world at our annual leaders and partners event, for discussions on strategy, ambition, plans and performance.

Outcomes of engagement and relevant KPIs

dMaintaining a high level of employee engagement, which in 2024 saw us maintain our employee engagement score of 82%.

dPromoted 315 colleagues in 2024.

dAttracted 620 new people in 2024.

Read more on pages
16 to 17.

Colleagues

Our people are critical to the successful delivery of our strategy and ambitions. We want to build teams that are as diverse as our customers and create a vibrant work environment where every colleague feels a sense of belonging and can thrive.

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Corporate governance and business ethics.

Data privacy and information security.

Resilience to volatility – market, political, economic, social and operational.

How the business engages with regulators

dOur Chief Compliance Officer and compliance teams worldwide lead our relationships with regulators and maintain regular dialogue with them throughout the year.

dWe maintain a regular cycle of stress testing and scenario analysis to ensure we manage risk well and evolve at the same pace as the risks we cover. This includes both in-house stress testing and scenario analysis, as well as industry scenarios which we report on to the relevant regulators.

dWe contribute to the regulatory change process, both directly and through our membership of trade associations such as the ABIR and the ABI. This helps us to ensure that we remain compliant in an ever-changing regulatory environment.

dWe speak at relevant industry events which are often attended by some of our regulators. In 2024, this included participation at the

FT’s Global Insurance Summit in London, where our Group Chief Information Officer spoke about our market-first Google Cloud collaboration as part of a panel debate.

How the Board engages with regulators

dWe are long-standing contributors to the annual supervisory college which is hosted by the BMA as our Group supervisor and provides an important opportunity each year to present a consistent message to all of our regulators on issues of common interest. This is attended by all of the Executive Directors, as well as other members of the GEC.

dMany of our Independent Non Executive Directors have one-to-one meetings with our regulators as part of their regular programmes of engagement with us.

Outcomes of engagement and relevant KPIs

d13 regulatory officials participated in the 2024 BMA supervisory college.

Relevant materiality areas*

Corporate governance and business ethics.

Data privacy and information security.

Digital transformation and operational excellence.

Reducing our environmental footprint.

How the business engages with suppliers

dRigorous global procurement processes ensure robustness in our practices and contribute to new and existing supplier relationships.

dPeriodic assessement of existing supplier relationships ensure these remain productive and valuable.

dOur supplier code of conduct applies to both suppliers and sub-contractors, and is shared with suppliers during the onboarding process and reshared during periodic assessments.

dDuring 2024, we embedded the use of ESG ratings in our supply chain, starting with our largest suppliers and those with an existing rating on a recognised external data provider.

dIn 2024, we introduced a new source-to-pay solution, delivering enhanced supplier oversight and faster payments to partners and suppliers. The system is now live in the UK and Guernsey and

will roll out to other parts of the Group over the course of 2025.

How the Board engages with suppliers

dOur Executive Directors contribute to decision‑making when it comes to our largest suppliers and have been involved in key selection and onboarding processes in 2024.

dThe Board receives an annual report on suppliers, covering supply chain strategy and spend.

Outcomes of engagement and relevant KPIs

dOver 100 new suppliers in the UK and Guernsey onboarded to source-to-pay solution in 2024.

dSuppliers with an ESG rating, using a recognised external data provider, represented 30% of third-party spend in 2024.

Regulators

We are a global business with a responsibility to engage with regulators in all jurisdictions where we operate. The Group is regulated in Bermuda and has regulated subsidiaries worldwide, and in 2024 met all material regulatory reporting obligations.

Suppliers

Our suppliers are an important extension of our in-house expertise, which is why we aim to work with like-minded businesses that share our purpose.

*See Hiscox’s materiality map on page 59.

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Being a responsible business

Sustainability

Being a responsible business takes consistent and collaborative effort, particularly as we focus on establishing an effective transition plan for the Group.

Jon Dye

Chief Executive Officer, Hiscox UK and member of the Sustainability Steering Committee

We have established many of the structures, policies and processes that it takes to build a responsible business, but the sustainability landscape is rapidly evolving and so too must our approach.

Our sustainability strategy is a key driver of sustainability action within our business (see page 57). Our five strategic pillars – customers, people, governance, risk adaptation, and impact – represent important areas of focus for the Group. We want to be a great place to work, deliver exceptional customer experiences, adapt effectively to the changing risk landscape, do business in a responsible and ethical way, and play our part in the net-zero transition.

Activities, progress and oversight of each pillar will continue to be driven through our embedded sustainability governance structures, under Executive leadership and in collaboration with the wider business.

People

Building a connected and inclusive workforce matters to us and is a long‑term priority. More information on this, including our people strategy and latest diversity targets and data, can be found on pages 64 to 69.

Beyond our own people, we also care about positively contributing to the diverse communities in which we live and work. We donate to good causes through the Hiscox Foundations in the UK and USA, and we fundraise and volunteer for the causes we care about through Hiscox Gives. In 2024, our collective efforts resulted in us supporting almost 250 charities with donations totalling over $2 million and 1,000 hours of volunteering.

Customers

We are in the business of paying claims, and during 2024 we paid out $2 billion to customers around the world. Delivering a best-in-class claims service really matters to us, and this work is recognised not only through our customer and claims satisfaction scores, but also through industry awards including Personal Lines Insurer of the Year at the UK Broker Awards 2024, which we were proud to receive.

As part of enhancing our awareness of the sustainability progress of our suppliers and partners, we revised and updated our information requests that are shared with vendor managers. This will enable us to collect better data and encourage our vendor managers to more closely align with our ambitions.

More information on customer satisfaction, including some of our 2024 customer and broker satisfaction scores, can be found on page 27 and you can find out more about our customer‑centric approach on pages 60 to 63.

Governance

This year, we have continued to embed the outputs of the double materiality assessment we conducted in 2023. This is enhancing our understanding of the material sustainability issues facing our business and supports emerging regulatory requirements including CSRD and the ISSB’s IFRS S1 and, to a lesser extent, S2.

Our double materiality assessment is shaping our sustainability work and sharpening our focus on areas of potential risk and significant opportunity (see page 59).

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We will continue to review and refine our approach in 2025.

Our governance pillar also includes responsible investments. In 2024, we made good progress towards our responsible investment targets (see page 85). We have reduced the threshold for direct investment in securities of companies that generate revenues from excluded activities from 30% to 10% of revenue. This applies to each excluded activity: thermal coal, oil sands, arctic exploration, and controversial weapons. This will further reduce the Group’s exposure to areas of high-transition risk and aligns with our wider ESG activity and emissions reduction initiatives. Using the support of our external data provider, we can increase the screening of our investment portfolio for climate and nature-related impacts which we can then engage with our managers to address going forward.

During 2024, we also worked with an external specialist to refine our modern slavery statement and enhance our human rights policy. This involved carrying out a gap analysis to identify any areas of the business in which we could strengthen the controls currently in place to prevent any policy breaches. We plan to continue this work in 2025 as we look to further embed our expectations within our supply chain.

Risk adaptation

We are passionate about risk adaptation in all its forms – from product innovation to risk mitigation tools – and as the underwriting risk landscape continues to evolve, so too does our approach. In 2024:

dwe set out our ambition to grow our exposure to renewables through our new

ESG 3033 sub-syndicate, which during 2024 has written a range of risks including wind and solar farms;

dwe continued to support customers through the Hiscox CyberClear Academy, with online cyber training provided to over 19,000 employees at over 3,000 companies;

dwe provided over 1,000 Leakbot devices to our UK home insurance customers, giving them an early warning leak detection system that can help them avoid the damaging cost of water claims.

More information on climate-related risk adaptation can be found on pages 74 to 88.

Impact

We continue to enhance our responsible operational practices in support of our sustainability ambition and net-zero goals.

During 2024, this included amending our lease contract language to encourage landlords to support our progress to net zero by switching to renewable energy contracts; supporting our emissions data collection process with more timely data points; and notifying us in good time of any significant changes that could impact our progress.

We also undertook a review of the buildings we own in the UK to understand where we could make energy efficiency savings, use more sustainable forms of energy, and continue to reduce our impact. Some of the actions identified have started to be addressed in 2024, for example, by reducing heating and air conditioning

usage and adjusting lighting levels in Hiscox‑controlled offices, and others will be a focus for 2025.

In addition, we have begun to monitor our supplier performance against a range of metrics to ensure positive sustainability outcomes within our supply chain. We have set targets to continually increase the number of suppliers we monitor through our third-party data provider and to track supplier improvements year on year. More information can be found on page 84.

We also continue to carefully monitor our GHG emissions. The half-year footprint process we introduced is proving effective, improving the quality of our data and providing oversight beyond a single point in time. A copy of our full GHG inventory for 2024, along with our SECR table, can be found on pages 83 to 87.

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Key

Monitor and manage: topics of relatively lower impact at the point of assessment, but which are managed and monitored with a readiness to adapt to evolving internal and external requirements.

Ongoing importance: topics of ongoing importance due to their influence on our strategy, performance and stakeholder relationships which therefore require continuous focus and active management.

Priority: current mission-critical sustainability topics due to their potential to impact our reputation, financial performance, and ability to attract and retain customers, business partners and investors.

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Custom made in action:

Operations School

Hear from one of our valued Hiscox USA SME customers on their experience of building a successful business… and protecting it with us.

We are a ‘customer-centric’ business – so what does that mean in practice?

Custom