Cobalt
Underwriting
Shariah Compliant Solutions
A-Rated ethical insurance products, advisory and training services since 2012
A unique proposition
Cobalt utilises the strengths of the London Subscription Market model to provide broad capacity for complex risk and a depth of knowledge and expertise that only a unique market such as London has to offer.
We are working closely with both global insurance carriers and Lloyd’s of London to develop solutions to some of the globe’s most challenging risks and work closely with the international broking community, to market and promote our underwriting capability, and build Shariah-compliant business relationships with companies throughout the Muslim world.
Cobalt Underwriting
Sharia Compliant SolutionsA-Rated ethical insurance products, advisory and training services since 2012
Find out MoreA unique proposition
Cobalt utilises the strengths of the London Subscription Market model to provide broad capacity for complex risk and a depth of knowledge and expertise that only a unique market such as London has to offer.
We are working closely with both global insurance carriers and Lloyd’s of London to develop solutions to some of the globe’s most challenging risks and work closely with the international broking community, to market and promote our underwriting capability, and build Shariah-compliant business relationships with companies throughout the Muslim world.
ESG Compliant
The Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) concept is soundly embedded within Cobalt’s objectives, mission and values. Cobalt is committed in playing its part in addressing the challenges of climate change. Cobalt strongly believe in ‘giving back to the community’ and will explores options in distributing its Surplus (Underwriting Profit) to charitable organisations that help the most vulnerable and needy or protect the environment. Cobalt have adopted a robust governance framework in that they are supervised by an external Supervisory Board to ensure that fundamental principles such as transparency with stakeholders, contract certainty with policyholders, fairness and justice are strictly implemented.
Higher Objectives
Indeed, the Higher Objectives (Maqasid) of Cobalt’s Shariah principles is to achieve happiness and promotes the well-being of mankind through the protection of life, property and wealth.
Risk Selection
No two risks are the same. Therefore, Cobalt apply a strict criteria in risk selection and carefully analyse each risk to ensure the removal of those risks that do not conform to Cobalt’s principles. For example, Cobalt do not accept risks that are involved in the Tobacco industry as it is extremely harmful to humans and the environment.
Participation
One of Cobalt’s core principles is the involvement of its Participants (Policyholders) and as result the Participants are kept involved in the distribution of the of the Surplus (Underwriting Profit).
Investment
Cobalt’s investment strategy is in harmony with ESG factors and criteria. Cobalt will not invest its funds in assets or services that is deemed to be detrimental to human life and the environment.
Shariah Principles
The essence of Shariah-compliant insurance is that it must:
- Avoid usury (no investment interest from premium funds)
- Involve the policyholder in the outcome of the underwriting
- Ensure that all monies are protected from contamination by non-Shariah funds
- Place investments exclusively in Shariah-compliant investment products
Shariah Standards
We have a full-time in-house Shariah scholar, Sheikh Zubair Miah, and a Shariah Board chaired by Sheikh Nizam Yaquby. By building Shariah expertise in London, Cobalt is providing common standards, consistency of Shariah interpretation and a robust platform for collecting premiums and paying claims.
Risk - Shariah in Nature
For Cobalt to provide cover, it is the risk exposure itself that must be Shariah-compliant, not the entity requesting cover.
There are a wide and varied assets owned or invested in by those who would like to protect their interests utilising the ethical alternative to conventional insurance that Shariah-compliant insurance provides.
Cobalt will consider risks from many sources so long as the exposure itself is not forbidden.
Those risks for which we cannot consider providing cover are:
- conventional financial services featuring interest, speculation and gambling
- certain food and beverage industries
- tobacco industry and illegal drugs
- gambling
- production of armaments
- sectors within adult entertainment industry
However, not all risk exposures can be ruled totally forbidden. Where a risk exposure includes some aspect of non-Shariah activity, so long as this can be measured and deemed in minority, then it is possible for Cobalt to provide a Shariah-compliant insurance contract.
Examples of this are multi-tenure buildings, buildings such as hotels that have some sales of alcohol or manufacturing processes where a forbidden product is created as a by-product.
Having our in-house Scholar allows us to identify and rule on these exposures as part of our underwriting processes.
Our Shariah Compliant model
- Our Insurers operate via a Takaful Window and deliver products utilising the Hybrid Wakala-Mudarabah Model, with the Wakala contract being used for the provision of underwriting services while the Mudarabah contract is adopted for returns made from investment and underwriting performance activities.
- With regard to underwriting services, the insurer act as the Wakeel (agent) on behalf of participants, in return for a Wakala fee, and provides such functions as providing policy pricing and administration, the accounting of monies, the adjustment and paying of claims, provision of actuarial services, arranging Retakaful and all other necessary functions.
- As well as receiving recompense for its direct services, the insurer is incentivised to maintain a balanced profitable underwriting stance that ensures the highest probability of the participants funds remaining in surplus. This is achieved by the participants agreeing to share with the insurer, on a predetermined basis, the profits made from prudent investment of the funds and the profits made through prudent underwriting and claims management .
- A pre-condition to the entire arrangement is that the Insurer delegates the operations of the Takaful Window to Cobalt Underwriting, and independent General Managing Agent (MGA) to deliver the services that strictly conform with the principles of Shariah, such as segregation of funds, transparency, purity, and avoidance of Shariah prohibited activities and services.
Shariah Compliant
Our Services
The Cobalt Group was started in 2012, backed by Capita, a FTSE100 company, and the Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME) and is formed of two operations:
Cobalt Advisory
Providing Shariah audit, training and certification
Cobalt Insurance Holdings
Cobalt Insurance Holdings is the umbrella company for Cobalt Underwriting and Cobalt Advisory Services. Our capacity is provided by a number of established insurers, all with an S&P rating of at least A or above
Company Directors
Max Taylor
Chairman of Cobalt Insurance Holdings Limited
Max began his career with Willis Faber and Dumas in 1970, and has more than 40 years of industry experience covering both broking and underwriting organisations. He is a previous Chairman of Lloyd’s of London and Deputy Chairman of Aon Corporation’s UK operations and Chairman of BIBA (British Insurance Brokers Association). Apart from Cobalt Insurance Holdings Chairman, he is also Chairman of Islamic Insurance Association of London.
John Williams
Director of Cobalt Insurance Holdings Limited & Cobalt Underwriting Services Limited
Mr. Williams has over thirty years of worldwide insurance and reinsurance industry experience. Mr. Williams co-founded Trebuchet Group Holdings Limited (formerly Armour Group Holdings and Brevan Howard P&C Partners Limited), in 2007 and is the President. He was co-founder and President of Castlewood Limited, a leading provider of run-off products for the insurance industry which he started in 1993.Mr. Williams started his insurance career in the London market before moving to Bermuda in 1981 and served as a the Underwriter and chief operating officer of one of Bermuda’s largest independent reinsurers Mr. Williams currently serves on the Insurance Advisory Committee appointed by the Minister of Finance and previously served as the Chairman of the Bermuda Independent Underwriters Association and was a member of the Insurance Admissions Committee which is appointed by the Bermuda Minister of Finance.
Anne Plumb
Director of Cobalt Underwriting Services Limited
Anne has had a 30 year career in the insurance/reinsurance market, holding a variety of senior positions in the Company and Lloyd’s Markets in London and overseas.
Eleven years of her career was at Swiss Re as a regional property manager in Asia Pacific, establishing and running significant and profitable books of business and managing teams across different countries. Upon returning to the UK, she became Managing Director of Swiss Re Energy Team in London, underwriting in a lead capacity and dealing with senior management of the world’s major oil and gas producers.
After 11 years, Anne moved into the Lloyd’s Market and worked as a lead underwriter and team leader at several Lloyd’s Syndicates, underwriting International and US property business (Open Market and Delegated authority).
At Cobalt, Anne runs the MGA on a day-to-day basis. The MGA offers ‘A’ rated insurance capacity for Shariah compliant products.
Anne holds a Masters in Management and an undergraduate degree in European languages and Politics.
Shariah Supervisory Board
Cobalt’s Sharia Supervisory Board is chaired by one of the world’s leading Sharia Scholars Sheikh Nizam Yaquby who works with an experienced management team to ensure the products offered meet Islamic regulations.
Sheikh Nizam Yaquby
Chairman of the Shariah Supervisory Board
Mufti Muhmmad Nurullah Shikder
Member of the Shariah Supervisory Board
Sheikh Zubair Miah
Secretary to the Shariah Supervisory Board & Internal Shariah Advisor & Compliance
Sheikh Nizam Yaquby
Chairman of the Shariah Supervisory Board
As an internationally recognised scholar in the Islamic finance industry, Sheikh Nizam holds influential positions on Shariah boards of many international and regional financial institutions and insurance companies. He is a member of the Shariah boards of internationally recognised standard-setting bodies including the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) and the International Islamic Financial Market (IIFM) as well as Islamic indices such as the Dow Jones Islamic Market Index.
He pursued traditional Islamic studies in Mecca, India and Morocco under the guidance of eminent Islamic scholars including Shaikh Abdulla al-Farisi, Shaikh Yusuf al-Siddiqi, Shaikh Muhammed Saleh al-Abbasi, Shaikh Muhhamed Yasin al Fadani (Makkah), Shaikh Habib-ur-Rahman A. Zaini (India) and Shaikh Abdulla bin Al-Siddiq Al-Ghumar (Morocco). Sheikh Nizam holds a PhD in Islamic Law from the UK’s University of Wales, and a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Comparative Religion from Canada’s McGill University. Sheikh Nizam has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard University.
Sheikh Nizam has a wealth of experience of Islamic finance and sits on the Shariah boards of many major Islamic banks.
Mufti Muhmmad Nurullah Shikder
Member of the Shariah Supervisory Board
Mufti Muhammad is currently the Managing Director of Al Huda Shariah Advisory Services Ltd.
Mufti Muhammad spent over a decade in his capacity as Executive Vice President and Head of Shariah at Gatehouse Bank and was the former Chairman of the Shariah Supervisory Board of the bank.
Prior to joining Gatehouse Bank, he spent a number of years with Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) in the Shariah Coordination Department (known today as “Dar Al Shariah”) and worked closely with Dr.Hussein Hamid Hassan. Prior to DIB, he worked for HSBC Plc in London and as a law lecturer. He was ranked among the Worlds’ leading scholar by FAILAKA (2008), and received the ZAKI BADAWI Award for Outstanding Young Shariah Advisory (2009).
He also advises various financial institutions in the UK and overseas and is a member of their Shariah Boards.
Mufti Muhammad is an Islamic Jurist and English qualified lawyer. He studied Shariah (in a traditional Madrasa environment) including Arabic language and literature, Fiqh, Usul al-Fiqh, Tafseer, Hadith, and completed the Shahaadatul Aalamiyyah and obtained BA/MA (Islamic Theology) from Darul Uloom Bury, UK. He subsequently spent another year at the same institution specialising in Fiqh. (Islamic Jurisprudence).
Mufti Muhammad holds LL.B (Hons), Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Skills (City University) and LL.M (Master of Laws) in Banking and Finance Law (University College London, UK).
Sheikh Zubair Miah
Secretary to the Shariah Supervisory Board & Internal Shariah Advisor & Compliance
Sheikh Zubair completed his memorisation of the Qur’an at the age of 16 at Darul Uloom Islamic College, Bury, UK. He continued with his Islamic studies at the same prestigious institute and received a Degree/Ijazah (Classical Certification) by completing the extensive six-year Islamic Theology course, whose syllabus includes, Arabic, exegesis of the Qur’an and Ahadith, Islamic Jurisprudence, and Fiqh.
Subsequently, Sheikh Zubair attained an LLB (Hons) from University of Kent at Canterbury and completed his Legal Practice Course (LPC) in 2010 at the College of Law (Bloomsbury).
Sheikh Zubair is the co-author of the study text book ‘Principles of Takaful’, currently taught by Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) at an Advanced Diploma level. Sheikh Zubair continues to educate, train and advise insurers and intermediaries operating within the London insurance market on Islamic insurance, or, as some may know it – Takaful.
Contact Us
Cobalt Underwriting Services
1st Floor, 63 St Mary Axe
London EC3A 8AA
enquiry@cobaltuw.com
020 3642 0200 (Main)
Cobalt Underwriting Services
Cobalt Underwriting Services Limited (“CUSL”) is a company incorporated in England, Company Number 07979365, and authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 605713) under Part IV permission to undertake a range of regulated activities.
CUSL operates as a fully Shariah-compliant Underwriting Agency (or Managing General Agent) based in the City of London focusing on the provision of Shariah-compliant insurance and reinsurance products and services.