Geoffrey Cole joined Davies in 2024 as a Broker Technician for the newly launched Davies Broking Europe Platform. In this Q&A he discusses the launch of the new European platform, it’s core offerings and how this will enhance the growth of the business. 

Tell us a bit more about your career to date and how you came to joining Davies? 

For around seven years now, I have worked in the insurance industry as both a broker and an underwriter in the London market as well as Europe. I then moved to Belgium in October 2018 and was keen to take advantage of the possibility of working for an international company. Brussels provided me with a diverse employment market within the insurance world which led me to sourcing my current role within Davies. 

What are your main responsibilities within your new role? 

I would say my main responsibility is data processing, whereby I participate in formatting tailored slips for our clientele, entering premiums ensuring transaction flow and reporting back to our clients. Along with this I have also been focusing on building out a client list to help with widening our opportunities in the European market. I have begun meeting with new clients and networking where I can to enhance our working relationships. It’s exciting to essentially be selling a new service for the company. 

You have been a key member of the team working to get the Davies Broking Europe (DBE) platform launched. Tell us a bit about what the platform has to offer.  

DBE’s platform became a necessity for Davies over the last couple of years if we wanted to continue working within the European market. When launching the platform, it was important to the team that we had a wide range of solutions to offer that would best service our clients. Our platform has four key solutions; Broker Incubation, Service Company Processing, Broker Warehousing, and Outsourced Services. The solutions we offer via the DBE platform aren’t too dissimilar to our UK offering, as we were able to use our expertise from the Lloyd’s market and transmit it over European services.  

Can you expand a little more on the core solutions of the DBE platform and what they offer to European clients? 

DBE essentially extends our UK broker incubation platform for clients that are looking to grow and establish an infrastructure in Europe. From this we can also work with clients who seek their own authorisation in Europe. DBE can also offer an alternative for handling Lloyd’s Managing Agents internal broker and service company Bureau processing, along with providing Non-Lloyd’s Bureau processing for London Market Carriers underwriting EEA business. 

Through our Broker Warehousing solution we can act as a strategic partner, facilitating EEA presence for both Lloyd’s and non Lloyd’s business by serving the EU placing broker. To add to this, whether a client is under our EEA authorisation or their own, our DBE platform can also act as an ongoing outsourced service provider but offering support and expertise for back-office operations. 

Can the solutions be accessed individually by clients or are they designed to be used alongside one another? 

The solutions can absolutely be accessed individually, but equally we have created a platform that offers a range of solutions that compliment one another. I feel as though our Outsource Services solution will be popular within the market and a strength of ours in particular as the data processing is already a part of the Davies core operating model.  

The DBE platform aims to create a strategic partnership with its clients. What sort of target market is the platform aimed at?  

The platform was of course created mainly to target clients looking to obtain their EU brokers license to then in turn be able to operate within the EU. We aim to work with both UK and EEA brokers, as well as Lloyd’s Managing Agents, Coverholders and non Lloyd’s Insurers. When we commit to working with a client, we ensure a strategic partnership is built that nurtures not only the growth of your business but enhances a business’s processes as well. 

By creating a European solution how do you feel this will benefit Davies and its clients?  

The creation of this platform will only bring good things for Davies in my eyes. By designing a solution that allows access into the European market it will build on Davies’s reputation and enhance our global opportunities across the industry. It also gives us the chance to continue building strong, dependable and long-term partnerships with our clients, but current and prospective.  

Do you believe the DBE platform will help to enhance our UK broker side of the business? 

Absolutely. We envisage a mix of both current and new clients accessing our platform. Only time will tell on how quickly the platform itself will grow, which is why networking is so important in the early stages to ensure we are onboarding new clients as efficiently as possible. We have already met with a mix of financial based businesses as well as local insurance companies, so our pipeline is beginning to grow. The DBE platform is an exciting new branch of our Broker Solutions offering so we view it as a massive enhancement of our business. 

Have you found the European market to be crowded in terms of the range of solutions that are offered? 

Not particularly. I wouldn’t saying we have faced many competitors at the moment other than a few obvious ones which we have always been aware of. I think it’s more about focusing on breaking through a barrier into a new market for us, which we are beginning to do due to long standing partnerships we already hold with our clients. We put a strong commitment to regulatory excellence as well as recognising the new for constant strategic growth which I believe gives us the upper hand within the market. 

You are currently living in Belgium – can you tell us your favourite thing to do in Belgium perhaps for any of our readers planning a visit there soon?  

I feel I’ve gone very stereotypical here with my answer, but nothing beats some good food in Belgium! Anything involving some boulets a la liegeoise with chips and beer is a win for me, perhaps followed by going to watch a motor race the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. 

And finally, where do you see yourself in five years’ time? 

I think my main aim is to continue developing the DBE platform and hopefully widen my role within that. I am also a globetrotter so definitely some more travelling – I’ll have to see where Davies Broking Europe takes me! 

If you would like to continue the conversation, get in touch with Broker Technician, Geoffrey Cole at geoffrey.cole@davies-group.com