US Appointments

Hiscox PLC
19 July 2005

                                  Appointments

Hiscox plc ('Hiscox') announces a number of appointments to expand its presence
and distribution in the United States market.

Ed Donnelly joins Hiscox with immediate effect in the newly-created position of
President of Hiscox USA. He will report to the Director of Underwriting, Robert
Childs, and be based in Armonk, New York. Hiscox had previously announced its
intention to open a Hiscox office in the United States and Ed will head this up
with an opening scheduled for early 2006. He will also be in charge of launching
and rolling out Hiscox's specialist products for businesses outside the Fortune
1000 that are placed through US-based local and regional brokers.

Ed, aged 45, has over 21 years of underwriting experience from roles at AIG and
Professional Indemnity Agency (PIA), owned by Houston Casualty. Most recently,
as Senior Vice President with PIA, he started and grew a highly successful book
of non-traditional professional indemnity business. This included recruiting and
managing a team of underwriters and support personnel over a period of 16 years.
A board trustee with the College of Mount Saint Vincent's in New York City, Ed
has a BS degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Separately, Hiscox has also made two other appointments to develop its
distribution network for Fortune 1000 risks in the United States. Both these
roles are focused on targeting large international insurance coverage placed in
London via global broker networks.

Nick Ward has been promoted to the newly created position of Global Markets
Development Underwriter for Hiscox Syndicate 33. Based in the United States,
this role will involve the development of new and servicing of existing business
across all lines placed into Syndicate 33 via the London broker network. Nick,
aged 42, previously ran the Global Markets professional indemnity account for
Syndicate 33 and has been at Hiscox for almost eight years.

David Chavez joins Hiscox as US Technology Underwriter. He will work with the
Global Markets TMT team to develop their relationships with brokers and clients
in the United States. David, aged 47, joins from PeoplesoftInc where he was
assistant General Counsel.

Bronek Masojada, Chief Executive of Hiscox plc said:
'The United States already accounts for 40 per cent of our business today. These
appointments reflect our commitment to developing our service to brokers and
customers in this important market and building on the strong business
relationships we already have there.'

                                    - ends -

For further information:

Hiscox plc
Bronek Masojada     Chief Executive                 020 7448 6012
Stuart Bridges      Finance Director                020 7448 6013
Robert Childs       Director of Underwriting        020 7448 6645
Fiona Fong          Director of Communications      020 7448 6447

The Maitland Consultancy

Suzanne Bartch                                      020 7379 5151

Notes to editors

Hiscox plc is a specialist insurance group listed on the London Stock Exchange
where it has a market capitalization of circa £500 million. There are three main
underwriting parts of the Group - Global Markets, UK and International Retail.
The Global Markets business underwrites, via Syndicate 33, mainly
internationally traded business in the London Market - generally large or
complex business which needs to be shared with other insurers or needs the
international licences of Lloyd's. The UK business offers a wide range of
specialist insurance for professionals and business customers, as well as high
net worth individuals. It has regional offices in Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds,
Maidenhead and Colchester. The European business has offices in Paris,
Amsterdam, Munich, Brussels and Guernsey and writes mainly high value household
business and some specialist professional indemnity business. Guernsey
underwrites kidnap and ransom business and fine art. For further information, go
to www.hiscox.com







                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange