Transactional insurance claims rise in EMEA: Marsh

Claims and notifications under warranty and indemnity policies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa have risen sharply, according to a report Thursday from Marsh LLC.

The product referred to as representations and warranties insurance in the U.S. is known as warranty and indemnity insurance in Europe and elsewhere, according to a Marsh spokeswoman.

Since 2016, Marsh JLT Specialty has seen about $100 million of paid claims in EMEA, the report said, and is also advising on ongoing claims that are expected to mature in the near future, including individual claims in excess of $100 million.

In a wider, 10-year timeframe, there were 175 notifications across 24 jurisdictions, the report said.

By type from 2009 through 2019, more than half of all claims were due to tax (31%) and financial statement (23%) breaches, data from the report showed, with “compliance with laws” third at 14%.

Larger deals are “far more likely” to see a notification of claim than smaller deals, the report said, with 17% of deals with an enterprise value of more than $1 billion netting a notification.

“The market is likely to see more large losses in the near term as the volume of insured deals increases and a key issue will be how insurers behave in response,” Simon Radcliffe, claims counsel for EMEA and APAC regions for Liberty Global Transaction Solutions, part of Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., said in the report.