US commercial premium growth slows across the board Q3: CIAB
Commercial property insurance premium growth eased to 17% y/y in Q3, highlighting moderate deceleration across nearly all business lines in what was nonetheless the 24th straight quarter of premium gains, a quarterly survey of members at the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers (CIAB) has shown.
For the full set of commercial lines tracked in the CIAB survey, average premium growth slowed to 7.1%, down from the 8.3% rate seen throughout H1 and back in line with growth rates seen in H2 2022.
“Client attitudes towards current market conditions were primarily negative” with 70% of respondents saying their clients suffer rate fatigue and 40% saying clients displayed “a level of mistrust towards the industry.”
Commercial property premium growth of 17.1% was down from 18,3% in Q2 and the recent 20.4% peak in Q1.
Survey respondents concurred that high reinsurance cost and lack of reinsurance capacity were key drivers, with 60% citing one or the other behind premium and capacity trend. Natural catastrophe losses also ranked high amongst drivers in the segment, cited by some 58% of respondents.
Declines in property were mirrored in other business lines with deceleration visible in all lines save for Marine and broker E&O, the CIAB dataset showed.
D&O liability slipped into 0.3% annual decline in premium as the fall from the Q2 2020 peak continues unabated.
But other metrics on D&O didn't point so unequivocally to a market softening. Some 78% of brokers claimed to have seen no change in capacity and 86% saw no change in market demand, despite the fall-off in IPOs and class action suits.
Mark commercial auto premium growth at 87.8% in Q3, down from a Q2 spike but still on a rough acceleration over the past year.
General liability premium growth at 4.2% in Q3 offered the lowest reading in recent memory, albeit down only mildly from the 4.6% rate offered in Q1.
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