Political Risks & Structured Credit Insurance

Tailored insurance solutions to safeguard your trade

Delivering world-class Political Risks & Structured Credit insurance solutions

Based in the major global markets of London, Singapore and Dubai, our team comprises of 30 experts with more than 300 years’ collective trading experience.

300+

years of combined experience

1st

structured credit insurance e-trading platform

$10bn

of insurance limits managed annually

$500m+

of settled claims in the past 10 years

Why is political risks and structured credit cover so important?

Even in times of comparative peace, global supply chains mean businesses are operating in the most complex credit and political risk environment since the Second World War. Market volatility and political risk are all part of the wider landscape of businesses but our specially designed political risk and structured credit insurance products mitigate these risks, allowing traders continue to trade successfully and seize new opportunities.

Adaptable products for evolving risks


The political risks and structured credit insurance market has been supporting international commerce for over 50 years, responding to the various challenges posed throughout that period. The causes and consequences to trade are varied and so too are our products. Howden CAP works with clients to develop bespoke solutions that enable trade to continue through turbulent times.

Why work with us? 

Market power

We work with over fifty insurers in the Political Risks & Structured Credit Insurance market and have longstanding relationships with the key decision makers within each underwriting team. Working with us brings you access to insurers with exceptional capabilities. The notional maximum capacity and tenors for each product are as follows:

  • Political Risk Insurance: up to USD 4 billion of capacity and for tenors up to 20 years
  • Sovereign Non-Payment Insurance: up to USD 3.9 billion of capacity and for tenors up to 15 years
  • Private Non-Payment Insurance: up to USD 2.8 billion of capacity and for tenors up to 15 years

Innovation 

Howden Capital, Advisory, Placement (CAP) has been central to developing new practices and driving market development. Our most recent innovations are two unique digital platforms: Tepfin, a Lloyd’s of London approved trading platform and Dynamite, a data management system for Structured Credit & Political Risk Insurance.

Claims advocacy 

Our claims track record speaks for itself- over the past ten years we have successfully settled all of our clients’ claims, totalling approximately USD 500MM+.

Who we work with

We have significant experience working with manufacturers, contractors, exporters and Fortune 100 multinational corporations.

Our policies assist in mitigating a range of political risks, including (but not limited to) expropriation, sanctions imposition, import/export embargoes, currency inconvertibility, political violence, terrorism and breach of contract.

In addition, we can secure coverage for a number of structured credit exposures, from short-term receivables to long-term export contracts. We have led the market in developing a product to help reduce a company’s exposure to potential Arbitration Award Defaults.

We have built a reputation as specialists in structuring reinsurance solutions in a variety of different markets through the placement of challenging transactions in difficult territories. Over the last six years, we have arranged over 30 Reinsurance policies for Export Credit Agencies, reinsuring over USD 2 billion worldwide.

We are at the forefront of developing insurance policies that meet the strict requirements allowing products to be treated as an applicable credit risk mitigant and qualify for regulatory capital relief, whilst also permitting country and counterparty limit relief.

We have benefitted investors through a variety of Political Risks and Structured Credit products that:

  • Increase their risk adjusted returns
  • Facilitate investments in more challenging political environments whilst maintaining commercial risk levels
  • Manage their exposure to certain risks, including given sectors, projects, funds, portfolios

We structure Political Risk Insurance & Structured Credit Insurance for almost every type of commodity globally, with industry-leading expertise specialised in also covering the physical goods in transit – offering a seamless comprehensive insurance package to our clients.

Since the team’s establishment in 2003, we have handled the placement of non-payment policies that allow traders to extend the most competitive credit terms to their buyers, as well as placing non-delivery placements for when clients is required to make advance payments for future deliveries of goods. In addition, we have created innovative portfolio structures that have helped unlock sizeable limits on capacity names and allowed clients to manage their credit insurance purchases more efficiently.

Today, we represent some of the largest, most well respected clients in this area and manage a portfolio of in excess of USD 1 billion of credit limits.

Tepfin X logo

Howden CAP has long recognised that demand for Structured Credit & Political Risk Insurance is ever increasing, as is its position at the core of risk origination and distribution strategies of buyers of the product.

In 2004, we had the vision to design a completely new way for its clients to access the Structured Credit & Political Risk Insurance market for their high volume businesses. The aim of this was to overcome the traditional inefficiencies of the insurance market in quoting and placing these business lines, to give clients an instant certainty and speed of access to available insurance capacity, which they can leverage to maximise the value of their commercial opportunities.

Tepfin is a free to access web-based system for clients requiring Structured Credit and Political Risk Insurance. Tepfin users can expect the following:

  • Get a quote in seconds rather than hours or days through Tepfin’s unique email distribution system and specialist broker expertise 
  • Automatically find the Insurers who are interested in your risk
  • Tepfin connects you directly to all of the subscribing insurers, nothing is hidden, no shortcuts are taken and only efficiency is increased
  • Full depth of market information is shown in the quotes
  • Our expert brokers manage the entire process and add value as, when and where it is required in the marketing and placement phases

History

Since it original launch in 2004, Tepfin has facilitated the placement of over 3,000 transactions and has the ability to manage thousands more on a daily basis. It has traded over USD 8bn worth of capacity across 71 different countries and 150+ obligors. It has a proven track record and is an unparalleled offering for our clients in today’s Structured Credit and Political Risk insurance market. No other broker has a trading platform like Tepfin – it is best-in-class in that respect.

Furthermore, as of 1 October 2018, Lloyd’s of London, the leading specialist insurance market, has accredited Tepfin as an approved e-trading platform for Credit and Contract Frustration business, the first broker-owned platform to receive such distinction.

TepfinX.com

Claims 

Claims handling forms an integral part of the broking service teams and, through our infrastructure and knowledge, we provide a first class service in terms of claims management and processing.

By understanding a client’s business and their specific requirements, our claims experts understand the relationship and nuances of each client’s policy, which ensures a fast, smooth and full settlement of any claims that do occur.

The broking teams work alongside the claims experts in coordinating the claims process and resolving of any disagreements that may arise regarding insurance policy interpretation.

Our claims record is a reflection of our expertise, position in the market and relationships with loss adjusters and insurers. Our clients have confidence that our policies will respond in the unfortunate event of a loss.

Find out how you can protect your investments

To get in touch, please fill in the simple form below.

If you are an existing client of one of the businesses that has merged with Howden to form Howden UK & Ireland, please click below for contact details:

Aston Lark

If you are a client of heritage Aston Lark, please get in touch with your usual contact or click here to find your local office.

A-Plan

If you are a client of heritage A-Plan, and are aware of the branch you are insured through, please visit this contact page for branch contact details or if you are unsure or are looking for a new quotation for car, home or van insurance, please call 01993 894 700.

Bruce Stevenson

If you are a client of heritage Bruce Stevenson or are situated in Scotland, please call 0131 553 2293 to speak to a member of Howden Scotland.

Endsleigh

If you are an education, student, charity, not-for-profit or other commercial client of heritage Endsleigh, please get in touch with your usual contact or please call 0333 234 1447 to speak to a member of the team. For Endsleigh landlord insurance queries, please visit this website.

 

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If your enquiry is urgent and you can’t find contact details for the specific team or office you need, please call us on 020 7623 3806.

 

What to do if you are experiencing financial difficulties

We recognise that the current economic conditions are putting pressure on many households and businesses. At Howden, we are committed to finding ways to assist our customers who may require additional support during these times.

If you’re currently facing financial difficulty, please speak to us about your insurance policies by:

-contacting your Howden Service Team
-calling Howden on 020 7623 3806
-using the enquiry form