During the AIG fourth-quarter earnings call today CEO Peter Zaffino highlighted the insurer’s launch of two sidecar-style syndicates at Lloyd’s and said the company has a “strong pipeline of SPV opportunities” suggesting future third-party capital partnerships may be expected.
Back in December 2024 AIG announced the first of what arrangement of a special purpose vehicle (SPV), when it launched its Syndicate 2478 at Lloyd’s, a structure planned to become a multi-year participant on the insurer’s outwards reinsurance program.
Syndicate 2478 is supported by third-party capital from funds under the management of asset management giant Blackstone.
Then, in December 2025, AIG announced it had partnered again with Blackstone on another sidecar-style syndicate, Syndicate 2479, while this time distribution giant Amwins and artificial intelligence supplied by Palantir were also in the mix.
In both cases, AIG and its partners opted to channel capital for these syndicates into the Lloyd’s market using the London Bridge 2 PCC insurance-linked securities (ILS) structure.
Both of these syndicates from AIG served to demonstrate that the Lloyd’s platform is increasingly attractive as a way venue for swiftly established third-party capital partnership vehicles, while the use of London Bridge to fund commitments and capital enables investors to allocate efficiently to meet their obligations to these ventures.
AIG’s Syndicate 2478 was highlighted as a source of efficient fee income and third-party capitalised reinsurance capital for the company, by executive Charlie Fry in the past. Syndicate 2479 is a differentiated approach, but also delivers on the same in generating more fee income and reinsurance capital to support a new portfolio opportunity.
During today’s earnings call, Peter Zaffino, CEO of AIG highlighted these examples and suggested there are more to come.
“AIG has led the industry in utilising third-party capital to develop innovative structures that create tailored risk sharing solutions. After successfully launching Syndicate 2478 at the start of the year, we closed 2025 with the formation of Syndicate 2479 a new special purpose vehicle launched in partnership with Amwins and Blackstone in December with a stamp capacity of $300 million of premium income,” Zaffino stated.
Going on to say that, “This partnership represents a differentiated model for portfolio underwriting supported by third-party capital, including capital committed by the largest US wholesale broker.
“We expect it will generate premium growth and fee income for a modest incremental capital commitment.”
Zaffino then turned to a unique feature of its latest sidecar-style syndicate at Lloyd’s, 2479, that there is an artificial intelligence (AI) component to it.
“This is also the first time we deployed our Gen AI capabilities in an SPV transaction. Partnering with Palantir, we use large language models to match data and define risk characteristics within the Amwins program business that were aligned with the syndicates risk appetite.
“In addition to assessing future opportunities, this capability enables us to use advanced analytics to help shape the current portfolio,” Zaffino said.
Closing on his comments around these capital efficient partnerships between underwriters and investors seeking returns from the insurance and reinsurance market, Zaffino suggested there will be more from AIG.
“We have a strong pipeline of SPV opportunities, and will continue to pursue future opportunities for expansion in our specialty and other lines of business,” Zaffino said.
It’s interesting to consider how else AIG could utilise the Lloyd’s and London Bridge 2 platform and structure to add capital efficiency to its business as it grows.
Beyond the pure reinsurance sidecar approach of 2478 and the net-new program business approach of 2479, third-party capitalised syndicates or other SPV’s used as sidecars can act as extensions and optimisers for AIG’s own balance-sheet capital, effectively allowing the company to write more premium using less of its own capital, while sharing in the economics with investors and benefiting from fee income as well.
Outside of catastrophe and specialty lines, it might make sense for the company to also consider how this, or another capital markets sidecar like structure, could help the company in optimising its casualty book as well. With the wave of interest in casualty ILS opportunities and the big investor names backing them, it could be a further avenue for AIG to explore.
Also read: AIG secured further efficiency in aggregate protection at advantageous renewal: CEO Zaffino.
