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Member, Beacon International Group, Ltd.
Insurance rates continue to fall for many lines of business in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, because of abundant capacity, among other factors, according to a report published Monday by Marsh L.L.C.
For multinational insurance buyers in the EMEA region, there was, in general, a softening of rates and sufficient capacity for most lines, according to the report.
Competition among insurers that are expanding into new territories and/or lines of business is “presenting those organizations with attractive risks and good loss histories with the opportunity to secure premium rate reductions at renewal,” the report said.
The largest loss events in Europe were hail and thunderstorms in the summer which caused about $2.8 billion in insured losses, principally in Belgium, France and Germany
Across the region, there was an increase in capacity for political risk coverage during 2014 “as insurers recognized the opportunity for non-correlative classes of business with increased earnings,” according to the report.
Rates for trade credit risk are continuing to fall across the EMEA region, according to the report, “Europe, Middle East, and Africa Insurance Market Report 2015.”
Rates for directors and officers liability remained fairly stable though some buyers saw rate reductions of up to 10%, Marsh said in a statement.
The captive insurance market is expected to grow in 2015, according to the report, in part because of greater certainty about how captives will be treated under Solvency II, the risk-based capital regime for insurers and reinsurers in Europe that will come into force in 2016.
Europe’s largest reinsurance cedents have benefitted from continued soft reinsurance rates across many lines of business and continued a trend of buying less reinsurance, A.M. Best Co. Inc. said Monday in an analysis.