Renewals market dragging feet; still 3 weeks from clear signals: Sompo

The march to 1.1. renewals is showing select “positive” signals in the rare cases where quotes have come through but also delays and foot-dragging that leaves the market at least three weeks from having reliable insights into likely outcomes, a top official at  Sompo has indicated.

“We are about three weeks to really give a good indication,” the chief executive of Sompo's global P&C unit Sompo International, Jim Shea, told analysts during a Sompo Holding investor meeting.

Shea sees “substantial rate increases” where price discovery is underway.  “We will see continuous rate improvement, but not simply rate, but terms, conditions and attachment points.”

But price discovery and terms setting are succumbing to delays and foot-dragging in a slow-moving market. “Many markets are waiting in terms of quoting portfolios and committing capacity.”

“It is really too early at this point to really give an accurate prediction in terms of impact across the portfolio,”

Shea feels “quite positive” on early signals. “Early indications of the accounts we quoted that renew on 1.1, are quite positive with respect to the reaction we have been receiving both from customers and from the market at large.”

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