The commercial insurance sector has seen significant hardening
in recent years. Skyrocketing premiums and shrinking capacity pools
are indicative of a market in flux. At the same time, rapidly
growing exposures – be it in natcat or (US) casualty lines
– are causing widespread concern.
The jury is out on whether the market has yet found a new
equilibrium, and if plateauing prices are actually a shift towards
a soft market phase, which all too often has caught insurers off
guard. Add the rise of new threats, notably macro-level
cyber-attacks, which can cause multi-billion-dollar damages,
especially where wordings have not been crafted carefully.
The tension is heightened by a slow adoption of underwriting
workbenches – both technically and by their full potential
– resulting in material opportunities missed. Too many
commercial insurers still struggle with an incomplete understanding
of risks, leading them to select risk and set rates inaccurately,
underestimating
