5. AmTrust revamps leadership in turnaround effort
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New York-based insurer AmTrust Financial Services Inc. has endured some difficult times over the past couple of years and its efforts to overhaul its operations and turn around its fortunes continued in 2019.
AmTrust, a significant workers compensation insurer for small and mid-sized businesses, first ran into problems in April 2017 after it was reported that its accounting practices were under investigation.
More money was injected into the company, its rating was downgraded in 2018 and it was eventually taken private, after a fight with Carl Icahn and other investors.
Later in 2018 it sold its reinsurance unit and in January 2019 it announced that it would make a series of executive changes as the turnaround strategy continued. A story about the management revamp was the fifth most read workers compensation article on the Business Insurance website this year.
More changes followed with the insurer announcing in April that it was selling its credit and surety reinsurance operations to Liberty Mutual Insurance Group and a few days later said it would sell its Lloyd’s of London business to Canopius AG.
Going forward, AmTrust said it would focus on specialty markets in the United States.
