Podcast: Geopolitics meets insurance: The Sanctions challenge

This episode explores how international sanctions are reshaping insurance risk, moving beyond a compliance issue to directly affecting underwriting, claims handling, and cross‑border transactions.

In this episode of our Emerging Risks podcast, host Neil Beresford is joined by Chris Hill, Partner at Clyde & Co in London, and Doug Maag, Partner at Clyde & Co in New York, to unpack the growing complexity of global sanctions regimes and their impact on insurers.

The discussion focuses on the interaction between major sanctions frameworks, particularly those of the UK, EU, and US, and how differences in scope, application, and extraterritorial reach create challenges for insurers operating across multiple jurisdictions. The panel examines how sanctions affect due diligence, including screening obligations, ownership structures, and the need to assess both counterparties and underlying transactions.

From a legal and practical perspective, the conversation highlights the difficulties insurers face when sanctions restrict claims payments or create conflicts between local law and international obligations. The speakers explore the role of licences, the limits of sanctions clauses, and the potential for mismatches between insurers and reinsurers, which can lead to disputes, delayed recoveries, or litigation.

Together, the speakers consider how evolving enforcement approaches, increasing regulatory scrutiny, and geopolitical uncertainty are shaping the sanctions landscape, and what insurers should be watching as regimes continue to shift and expand in the years ahead.