When it comes to cyber insurance, Axa XL’s Bermuda office deals mostly with third-party related claims.

To gain wider market experience, two Bermudian staff members, passionate about cyber insurance, were recently sent on a one-month secondment to the New York office.

Lawyer Tiné Tucker, 34, a senior claims specialist, went in January.

“I arrived on a day when it was snowing,” she said. “It was the first time New York had experienced more than an inch of snow in 700 days.”

She thought she was in the wrong place when she found an upscale shopping mall at the location.

“It was beautiful,” she said.

Axa XL was located on the 40th and 41st floors of the building. Upstairs, the office was bright and airy with beautiful views of the Statue of Liberty and the Hudson River.

During her time there, Ms Tucker gained an overview of the history of cyber insurance and learnt about the procedures and forms the cyber underwriters used there.

“I had one-on-ones with every team member on the claims team, and there were 16 of them,” she said. “I participated in numerous training sessions for various cyber incident response vendors, including law firms that act as breach coaches.”

Breach coaches advise firms on how to proceed, from a legal prospective, after experiencing a cyberattack.

Professional lines underwriter, Shakeem Albouy, 30, did his time there two months later, when the weather had warmed up.

“New York was very fast-paced,” he said. “They see a lot more deals on a day-to-day basis. They have the latest and greatest technology in place.”

Cyber underwriters were embedded in the cyber claims team because they worked closely with one another.

“In New York, I was able to connect with a lot more people, not necessarily in my speciality,” he said.

However, he saw some advantages to being a young underwriter in Bermuda, such as being able to easily connect with local tech experts.

“Even if you don’t work for the same company, you can always have coffee with them,” he said. “In the New York office there are a lot more people. Accessibility to experts is not always there.”

He also found that not all the claims underwriters lived in New York. Some of them worked remotely, and commuted into the office every two months, making relationship-building more challenging.

Mr Albouy and Ms Tucker see only growth for the cyber insurance market in Bermuda.

“As corporate reliance on interrelated systems and evolving technology grows, so does cyber-risk,” Ms Tucker said. “That means that if this entity suffers a cyberattack, all these other entities are also affected.”

Her goal is to become a subject expert on cyber insurance.

“If you have technology, you live in the world of cyber,” she said. “It is our present and our future. There is a lot to understand about the risk that comes out of cyber. Lawyers are always thinking about how to manage risk.”

For Ms Tucker, the highlight of the secondment was seeing the security that the insurance industry provided for insureds.

Mr Albouy has been at Axa XL in Bermuda for two years. Going on secondment was on his mind from the beginning.

“I asked about secondments in the interview,” he said.

He saw it as a major benefit of working for Axa XL.

He has always been interested in technology, but when he was in university, cybersecurity was seen as an elite degree.

Mr Albouy said: “Over time I have taken various courses in it, from fintech education to web development.”

Today, the majority of his accounts at Axa XL are technology driven.

Ms Tucker found that the Bermuda office had an almost legendary reputation in New York.

“They knew about Axa XL’s fish tank and the whale tail outside,” she said.

There is talk of possibly bringing people from the New York office to Bermuda to do similar secondments, in reverse.

Ms Tucker has worked at Axa XL in Bermuda since last November.

“So far Axa XL is the gift that keeps on giving,” she said.