July 16, 2025 • 7 mins
AXIS is a global specialty commercial insurer that covers risks for businesses that can’t normally obtain standard insurance coverage. The commercial reinsurer boasts customers spanning a range of industries. Examples of the specialty coverage lines at AXIS include property, casualty, cyber, marine, energy, accident & health, sports insurance, terrorism, aviation, as well as coverage for the directors and officers of companies.
Vince Tizzio, the president and CEO of AXIS, discusses his company's risk mitigation strategy and how factors such as climate change can impact his business. Vince speaks with Tim Stenovec and Emily Graffeo on Bloomberg Businessweek Daily.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. You're listening to Bloomberg
BusinessWeek with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
In this environment of political, economic, social, and technological change,
the nature of risk is in a constant state of evolution,
and the need for specialty solutions to protect against that
risk has never been greater. Those are the words of
Vince Tizio, President and chief executive officer of Access Capital Holdings.
(00:36):
It's a publicly traded company about seven billion dollars in
market cap, and they work with businesses to cover specialty
lines of insurances, so think property, casualty, accident and health,
but also ensuring about cyber, marine and terrorism related risks.
Vince Dizzio joins us right now in the Bloomberg Interactive
(00:56):
Brooker Studio. Thanks for joining us, how well, thanks for
having me.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Nice to be with you.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So you guys pivoted away from catastrophe reinsurance that's a
few years ago and now you're more focused on these
specialty risk Just talk a little bit broadly about what
the focus is now and the motivation behind that change
in business.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Sure, So, Access in twenty twenty two announced as you mentioned,
leaving the reinsurance property cap market, we rededicated ourselves to
the insurance specialty products and you captured a number of
the industries. Why did we do it. We felt we
had a stronger value proposition to meet the needs of
our clients globally in the provision of marine insurance, excess casualty, energy,
(01:38):
to name a few industries that we have a keen focus.
Of course, cyber, and we have found the benefit of
realizing being at the point of sale on the insurance
side has proven to be more economically beneficial as well.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
What's the biggest area of growth for you right now?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, our wholesale business is the largest segment of growth
for us here in the United States. It's a rapidly
growing channel of distribution and one where we have a
keen knowledge base and expertise.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
But if you think about it not from the perspective
of how you're selling it, but of what you're actually ensuring,
which is the area of growth. Sure, more and more
companies common and saying we need cyber.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
The construction industry utilizes wholesale distribution often is one keen focus.
The entertainment industry, the hotel industry transportation clearly, and really
we're bringing unbundled. So there are individual products to that
channel that cover their exposures in a tailored way really
to be as specific to the exposures that they're trying
(02:34):
to assure themselves.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
What is your exposure with a huge event, let's say,
a catastrophic event that would actually affect multiple customers of yours.
What's your financial exposure and how do you protect yourself?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, so in part the question that Emily asked at
the outset was one of the driving considerations our ability
to be more certain in the degree or order of
magnitude that we could economically handle on an event that
cross is multiple customers, multiple industries at the same time.
So we have a number of models that drive what
tolerance of risk that we have. It's one of our
(03:08):
most improved areas from the vantage point of our volatility,
which has measured each quarter on a catastrophe ratio basis,
and I think it's aided our TSR improvement over the
last two years, which has been over one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
What kind of companies do you work with in terms
of size? Is it typically larger companies? Is there like
a certain market cap that you're working with.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, thank you. So we've brought in the spectrum of
our customer segmentation. We'll handle transactional customers, say, companies with
receipts or turnover as little as ten million dollars to
the biggest companies in the world, and it obviously differs
by each of our business focuses. And the energy space
we handle the largest companies in the world. In our
(03:50):
middle market space, we handle a number of transactional customers
across a broad swath of products.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
How does climate change affect your business?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Importantly? Importantly it's that we are speaking about regularly, but
more specifically, it is a reminder of the provision of
care that we bring to the commercial insured global marketplace.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
But which part of the business does it hit more so?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Marine, property, marine and energy are the three areas where
climate change has an impact. And never forget, for the
public company customer, the duties of a director that assures
their companies that they're buying enough limits that the terms
and conditions are tailored to meet their exposures to loss.
So broadly it affects a number of our businesses.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
What about when it comes to cybersecurity, just like these
leaders of big businesses that you work with your clients,
how nervous are they about in an age of AI
increasing use of Like I get scared. I read news
articles about AI and attacks and I get nervous. What
are business leaders saying?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
It's a top five board conversation. It starts with the
provision of care and the resilience of the company itself
to make certain that they can protect themselves, the choice
of the insurance company that they're partnering with. Remember, insurance
companies that provide cyber insurance aren't only an asset that
they can draw on when they have an event. It's
the loss preventative services that strong specialty insurers like access
(05:13):
delivered to customers. It's the continual feedback of making certain
that we're both staying aware of the different threats and
the different forms of threat actors.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Can you just explain and kind of take a step
back and explain the difference between for people listening or
watching right now, the difference between specialty lines versus standard
US commercial lines of insurance and sort of where you're
leaning into when it comes to because correcting wrong, you're
kind of moving away from the non specialty lines right.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
No, we're doubling down tim so specialty. Please think of
specialty as providing through a distribution channel. We're an intermediated business,
an individual product. We're not a packaged product. We don't
sell combination or standard lines per se. We sell individual
products that cover defined exposures. So we under write and
(06:00):
provide to the market property insurance, cyber insurance, all forms
of marine insurance, and we work through an intermediated channel
that is specialized. What does that mean. That's the line
of business that they represent only on behalf of their clients.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I want to talk about the flood insurance market. One
of our colleagues from BI Bloomberg Intelligence noted us that
most US insurers do not write flood insurance. What do
you think about this prospect of more private insurance getting
into that market and what is accesses appetite specifically?
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Well, we as part of our property offering, we do
provide flood insurance. I think what was reference in the
article is really the public private partnership. The order of
magnitude that floods can create an economic harm may require
a partnership between government and private and so this is
a long standing policy that's been out there, but in
(06:57):
the provision of Access serving its clients, we provide a
fulsome remit of offering. We provide this globally on a
property basis.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Vince, always good to see you.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Nice to see you.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Thanks for Vince TiO. He is the president and CEO
of Access Capital Holdings. It's a seven billion dollar market
tap company that works with businesses to cover specialty lines
of insurance, property, casualty, accident, and hell thanks so much
for joining us. Vince, always good to see you.
Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. You're listening to Bloomberg
BusinessWeek with Carol Masser and Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
In this environment of political, economic, social, and technological change,
the nature of risk is in a constant state of evolution,
and the need for specialty solutions to protect against that
risk has never been greater. Those are the words of
Vince Tizio, President and chief executive officer of Access Capital Holdings.
(00:36):
It's a publicly traded company about seven billion dollars in
market cap, and they work with businesses to cover specialty
lines of insurances, so think property, casualty, accident and health,
but also ensuring about cyber, marine and terrorism related risks.
Vince Dizzio joins us right now in the Bloomberg Interactive
(00:56):
Brooker Studio. Thanks for joining us, how well, thanks for
having me.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
Nice to be with you.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
So you guys pivoted away from catastrophe reinsurance that's a
few years ago and now you're more focused on these
specialty risk Just talk a little bit broadly about what
the focus is now and the motivation behind that change
in business.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Sure, So, Access in twenty twenty two announced as you mentioned,
leaving the reinsurance property cap market, we rededicated ourselves to
the insurance specialty products and you captured a number of
the industries. Why did we do it. We felt we
had a stronger value proposition to meet the needs of
our clients globally in the provision of marine insurance, excess casualty, energy,
(01:38):
to name a few industries that we have a keen focus.
Of course, cyber, and we have found the benefit of
realizing being at the point of sale on the insurance
side has proven to be more economically beneficial as well.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
What's the biggest area of growth for you right now?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
Well, our wholesale business is the largest segment of growth
for us here in the United States. It's a rapidly
growing channel of distribution and one where we have a
keen knowledge base and expertise.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
But if you think about it not from the perspective
of how you're selling it, but of what you're actually ensuring,
which is the area of growth. Sure, more and more
companies common and saying we need cyber.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
The construction industry utilizes wholesale distribution often is one keen focus.
The entertainment industry, the hotel industry transportation clearly, and really
we're bringing unbundled. So there are individual products to that
channel that cover their exposures in a tailored way really
to be as specific to the exposures that they're trying
(02:34):
to assure themselves.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
What is your exposure with a huge event, let's say,
a catastrophic event that would actually affect multiple customers of yours.
What's your financial exposure and how do you protect yourself?
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Yeah, so in part the question that Emily asked at
the outset was one of the driving considerations our ability
to be more certain in the degree or order of
magnitude that we could economically handle on an event that
cross is multiple customers, multiple industries at the same time.
So we have a number of models that drive what
tolerance of risk that we have. It's one of our
(03:08):
most improved areas from the vantage point of our volatility,
which has measured each quarter on a catastrophe ratio basis,
and I think it's aided our TSR improvement over the
last two years, which has been over one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (03:22):
What kind of companies do you work with in terms
of size? Is it typically larger companies? Is there like
a certain market cap that you're working with.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Yeah, thank you. So we've brought in the spectrum of
our customer segmentation. We'll handle transactional customers, say, companies with
receipts or turnover as little as ten million dollars to
the biggest companies in the world, and it obviously differs
by each of our business focuses. And the energy space
we handle the largest companies in the world. In our
(03:50):
middle market space, we handle a number of transactional customers
across a broad swath of products.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
How does climate change affect your business?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Importantly? Importantly it's that we are speaking about regularly, but
more specifically, it is a reminder of the provision of
care that we bring to the commercial insured global marketplace.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
But which part of the business does it hit more so?
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Marine, property, marine and energy are the three areas where
climate change has an impact. And never forget, for the
public company customer, the duties of a director that assures
their companies that they're buying enough limits that the terms
and conditions are tailored to meet their exposures to loss.
So broadly it affects a number of our businesses.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
What about when it comes to cybersecurity, just like these
leaders of big businesses that you work with your clients,
how nervous are they about in an age of AI
increasing use of Like I get scared. I read news
articles about AI and attacks and I get nervous. What
are business leaders saying?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
It's a top five board conversation. It starts with the
provision of care and the resilience of the company itself
to make certain that they can protect themselves, the choice
of the insurance company that they're partnering with. Remember, insurance
companies that provide cyber insurance aren't only an asset that
they can draw on when they have an event. It's
the loss preventative services that strong specialty insurers like access
(05:13):
delivered to customers. It's the continual feedback of making certain
that we're both staying aware of the different threats and
the different forms of threat actors.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Can you just explain and kind of take a step
back and explain the difference between for people listening or
watching right now, the difference between specialty lines versus standard
US commercial lines of insurance and sort of where you're
leaning into when it comes to because correcting wrong, you're
kind of moving away from the non specialty lines right.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
No, we're doubling down tim so specialty. Please think of
specialty as providing through a distribution channel. We're an intermediated business,
an individual product. We're not a packaged product. We don't
sell combination or standard lines per se. We sell individual
products that cover defined exposures. So we under write and
(06:00):
provide to the market property insurance, cyber insurance, all forms
of marine insurance, and we work through an intermediated channel
that is specialized. What does that mean. That's the line
of business that they represent only on behalf of their clients.
Does that make sense?
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
I want to talk about the flood insurance market. One
of our colleagues from BI Bloomberg Intelligence noted us that
most US insurers do not write flood insurance. What do
you think about this prospect of more private insurance getting
into that market and what is accesses appetite specifically?
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Well, we as part of our property offering, we do
provide flood insurance. I think what was reference in the
article is really the public private partnership. The order of
magnitude that floods can create an economic harm may require
a partnership between government and private and so this is
a long standing policy that's been out there, but in
(06:57):
the provision of Access serving its clients, we provide a
fulsome remit of offering. We provide this globally on a
property basis.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Vince, always good to see you.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
Nice to see you.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Thanks for Vince TiO. He is the president and CEO
of Access Capital Holdings. It's a seven billion dollar market
tap company that works with businesses to cover specialty lines
of insurance, property, casualty, accident, and hell thanks so much
for joining us. Vince, always good to see you.
Hosts And Creators
Tim Stenovec
Carol Massar
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