London-headquartered broker BPL has launched a dedicated surety business line to help corporates and financial institutions source alternatives to traditional bank guarantees.
The credit and political risk insurance (CPRI) broker said the new BPL Surety business was developed in response to growing demand from clients looking to diversify their sources of financial support “as banks face balance sheet constraints”.
Surety, under which an insurer issues a guarantee on behalf of a corporate to back a contractual or commercial obligation, has increasingly been positioned as a substitute for bank guarantees and standby letters of credit.
BPL Surety will operate across three regional hubs – London, Paris and Geneva – with access to global surety markets, the broker said.
It added the new business line would target “increased underwriter appetite” for new types of surety applications, with a particular focus on UK and European corporates operating internationally, as well as transactions where collaboration between surety providers and banks “are likely to prove most effective and commercial”.
BPL has been introducing surety structures to the market since 2018, including margining guarantees. The company said the latest launch was intended to expand and strengthen that existing offering.
“The launch of BPL Surety is a natural complement to our core CPRI products,” said James Reynolds, BPL group CEO.
“Our clients are increasingly focused on diversifying sources of financial support, particularly as banks face growing balance sheet constraints. This is a clear opportunity to apply BPL’s specialist expertise and market relationships to develop solutions that respond directly to those changing needs.”
BPL Surety will be led by five directors, including Philippine de Villèle and Edouard Huberdeau in Geneva, George Bellord in Paris, and new London hires Tom Parrott and Danielle Upton, both of whom previously worked for global insurer Howden.
Parrott joins BPL after more than a decade in surety broking at Howden’s capital, advisory and placement division in London, where he led the UK domestic book before moving into global transaction structuring for major corporates and “supporting bank collaboration on fronted and syndicated deals”, BPL said.
Upton has 12 years’ experience spanning underwriting and broking. She began her career underwriting surety at QBE, where she spent more than eight years, before moving into broking at Howden in 2022. Her background covers contract and commercial surety transactions, delegated underwriting authorities and bank collaborations “across a wide range of surety products, structures and geographies”, according to BPL’s statement.
The global surety market is estimated to generate over US$20bn in premiums each year, with further growth expected in the coming years, according to AXA XL’s Credit and Surety Market Survey 2025.
BPL said the market growth reflected “an influx of new entrants” over the past decade, driven by rising infrastructure investment, regulatory change and a broadening of how the product is viewed.
The BPL Surety launch follows the rollout in May of BPL Re, a dedicated reinsurance division covering credit, political risk and surety lines, led by Alistair McVeigh and Louis Harvey, both former Guy Carpenter executives.
