Relm Insurance Appoints Chubb Veteran Ankur Pandya to Lead US Financial Lines and Cyber

Relm Insurance has appointed Ankur Pandya as Senior Vice President – Financial Lines and Cyber to lead its United States operations from New York. For fintech and digital asset professionals, this hire signals a significant institutionalization of the emerging risk insurance market, as specialized carriers increasingly recruit veteran talent from legacy giants to bring traditional underwriting discipline to volatile technology sectors.

What was announced

Relm Insurance confirmed the appointment of Ankur Pandya to the role of Senior Vice President – Financial Lines and Cyber. Based in New York, Pandya will report directly to Shane Doyle, Relm’s Chief Underwriting Officer. His primary mandate involves the strategic growth of Relm’s financial lines and cyber portfolios within the U.S. market, focusing on maintaining long-term profitability through rigorous underwriting standards.

Pandya joins the firm with more than two decades of experience in financial lines, specifically focusing on financial institutions. His career includes a ten-year tenure at Chubb, where he served in senior leadership and underwriting roles. During his time at Chubb, he was responsible for managing complex portfolios and cultivating relationships within the broker and client communities. Prior to his decade at Chubb, Pandya spent ten years at Travelers, holding various positions across underwriting and distribution.

In his new capacity at Relm, Pandya is tasked with enhancing the company’s existing capabilities in portfolio management and team development. His dual background in underwriting and distribution is expected to facilitate Relm’s expansion in the U.S. market as the company enters what it describes as its next phase of growth. The appointment is positioned as a move to bridge the gap between the entrepreneurial requirements of emerging risks and the structural discipline of traditional insurance markets.

"What attracted me to Relm was the combination of strong underwriting fundamentals and an entrepreneurial approach to evolving risks. There’s already a strong foundation in the US, and I see a real opportunity to build on that. For me, success means growing these portfolios profitably over the long term, bringing discipline to how we manage the business, and building a team that works hard, enjoys working together, and has strong relationships with brokers and clients."

Ankur Pandya, Senior Vice President – Financial Lines and Cyber at Relm Insurance.

The companies involved

Relm Insurance is a specialty insurance carrier that focuses on providing coverage for emerging industries and next-generation technologies. The group includes Relm Insurance Ltd., which is domiciled in Bermuda, along with its various affiliates. Launched in 2019, the company was established specifically to address the lack of insurance capacity available to high-growth, innovative markets that traditional carriers often avoid due to perceived volatility or lack of historical data.

The firm has positioned itself as a key risk partner for institutions operating at the frontier of the modern economy. Its core areas of expertise include web3, digital assets, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and the burgeoning space economy. By offering tailored insurance solutions, Relm aims to bolster the resilience of these innovative sectors. Unlike many generalist insurers, Relm’s market position is defined by its willingness to underwrite risks in sectors where technical complexity and rapid evolution are the norms, rather than the exceptions.

What FF News has reported before

Relm Insurance has been aggressively expanding its leadership team and product suite over the past year. FF News previously reported on the appointment of Mike Morales as Head of Claims, a move designed to scale the firm's global specialty operations. This followed the hiring of Sue Crawford as Head of Distribution and Timothy Powell to lead Asia Pacific expansion and global underwriting.

Beyond personnel, Relm has also been active in product innovation. The company recently launched Kidnap and Ransom insurance specifically tailored for executives in the digital asset and cannabis sectors, responding to an increase in physical threats against high-profile individuals in these niche industries.

What this means

The migration of high-level talent from "Big Insurance" stalwarts like Chubb and Travelers to specialized carriers like Relm marks a turning point for the fintech and digital asset sectors. It suggests that the "wild west" era of emerging risk insurance is ending, replaced by a demand for institutional-grade oversight. Legacy insurers now face a dual threat: they are losing seasoned underwriting talent to agile competitors, and they risk being sidelined in the most lucrative high-growth sectors of the next decade. The central question for the industry is whether traditional underwriting discipline can truly be reconciled with the rapid, often unpredictable pivots of the web3 and AI economies.