Specialty lines insurer HDI Global Specialty SE has launched a political and credit risk team in London with the hires of Nick Robinson and Anthony Vaughan. Both join from specialist insurance provider Neon Underwriting.

“The new London team will work in collaboration with HDI Global Specialty’s existing political risk team based in Stockholm,” the firm says in a statement.

Robinson (pictured) has joined as head of political risk and structured credit. He has more than 20 years of political risk insurance (PRI) experience including establishing and growing a PRI book at Marketform, latterly Neon. This included cover related to confiscation, expropriation, nationalisation and deprivation, contract frustration and structured credit insurance. He has also worked at AIG London, Wellington Underwriting and JLT.

Vaughan takes up a senior analyst and underwriter role. He started out at the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority in 2002. He then spent nine years with SMBC in various positions, including as a credit analyst in London. He joined Neon Underwriting in 2017 and played a key role in setting up its structured credit business plan.

“Since the creation of the business at the start of last year, we have said we will be looking for opportunities to expand our offering to the market, which now extends to credit products including both public and private obligor default and lenders protection alongside existing political risk coverage,” says HDI Global Specialty SE UK managing director, Richard Taylor. “This is another example of the business delivering on its stated strategy of organic and inorganic growth.”

HDI Global Specialty SE is a joint venture of Hannover Re and HDI Global SE.