The change targets what Zurich describes as “mass risks”-businesses that don’t exceed certain turnover and exposure thresholds but nonetheless have multinational footprints.
Zurich UK has quietly but decisively expanded its multinational insurance capability for the mid-market with the unveiling of a simplified “All Risks” solution designed to cover mass-risk businesses with cross-border exposures in core EEA markets. Announced on 8 December 2025, the move simplifies insurance arrangements for growing UK firms operating in Europe by allowing a single UK-issued policy to sit behind local placements across multiple territories.
The change targets what Zurich describes as “mass risks”-businesses that don’t exceed certain turnover and exposure thresholds but nonetheless have multinational footprints. For these companies, the expanded framework removes the longstanding friction of arranging separate local policies in each jurisdiction, instead providing one midmarket Commercial Combined ‘All Risks’ policy that can be extended to operations in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. That consolidation should reduce administrative load for brokers and customers while improving consistency of cover.
Mid-market firms are the engine room of international trade. Many are exporters, suppliers, or service providers with occasional or growing overseas exposure. Traditionally, that exposure has produced patchwork covers, local regulatory headaches, and variable claims handling. Zurich’s expansion addresses these pain points through a UK-issued policy that coordinates cover across several key European markets-a pragmatic response to an appetite for simpler, faster multinational insurance for firms that sit below the large corporate tier.
The timing is strategic, to say the least. This year, Zurich has publicly been accelerating its mid-market capability and underwritten footprint across regions, recruiting underwriting talent and extending product platforms aimed at growing businesses. This announcement fits into that broader playbook: deepen the product set for middle-market customers, make placement quicker and more accessible for brokers, and capture growth where demand for measured international protection is rising.
Operationally, the improvement seems targeted as much at brokers as policyholders. In centralising issuance and standardising core terms, brokers achieve a more straightforward proposition for clients with multi-jurisdictional exposures-a useful selling point in an increasingly competitive retail market where speed and consistency of service are commonly the deciding factors in procurement decisions. Zurich’s regional retail and commercial teams will quote and bind these solutions from local hubs, streamlining the sales and binding process.
Market players greeted the news with cautious optimism. Insurers that can combine underwriting scale with local claims orchestration will be attractive to brokers handling numerous mid-market accounts. For clients, the appeal is equally pragmatic: fewer policy documents, one renewal cadence and-in principle more predictable claims outcomes. However, some brokers will scrutinise the local compliance mechanics and the ease with which local needs-such as language, statute of limitations or compulsory covers in certain territories-are accommodated. The devil often sits in those jurisdictional details.
For Zurich, the product extension is both a defensive and offensive move: defensive, in that it retains clients who might otherwise look elsewhere for multinational simplicity; offensive, in that it opens a scalable route to win a larger share of mid-market international business. It also chimes with industry-wide trends towards modular multinational solutions – packaged enough to be efficient, flexible enough to meet varied local demands.
brokers will pilot the product on live accounts, checking how seamlessly local placements are co-ordinated and claims referrals are dealt with across borders. Rivals will either develop their own mid-market multinational platforms or look to sharpen their relationships with distributors. For UK mid-market firms operating across Europe, the announcement serves as a reminder to revisit their multinational programme design – simpler cover may now be easier to place.
In all, Zurich UK’s expansion is a pragmatic, market-sized tweak with outsized potential: it cuts red tape for a large cohort of exporters and internationally active mid-market firms, while giving brokers and underwriters a cleaner, faster tool for placing multinational mass-risk business. If execution matches intent-especially on local compliance and claims coordination-the move could become a blueprint for how insurers serve the increasingly international mid-market.
