Marsh has now released its latest quarterly briefing on the state of the market and its trends.
The most recent report released by Marsh has shown that the insurance news from around the world appears to indicate that the rates have been solidifying throughout the entire first quarter of the year.
This firming trend is continuing one that has been continuing over the last year and a half.
The insurance news report from Marsh showed that several parts of the globe have, overall, experienced a relatively stable rate environment. The majority of primary coverage lines saw increases in their rates between 2 and 4 percent in the United States. Elsewhere in the world, there was an average decrease of about 1 percent.
This insurance news report indicates the fifth consecutive quarter for a global rate average.
This, according to the latest insurance news from the Marsh Risk Management Global Insurance Index. That index represents a weighted or combined average of rate movement over the previous year. It was based at 100.00 during 2012’s second quarter, and rose by 0.1 points to reach 101.3 in this year’s first quarter.
The insurance news for that quarter indicated that the rates, overall, experienced a renewal with an increase of 0.3 percent. This followed another increase in the last quarter of 2012, which was 1.2 percent, on average. The property rate, worldwide, saw an overall decline on renewal during the first quarter of 2013, by an average of 0.2 percent. That said, professional and financial lines typically rose by about 0.8 percent on renewal. The casualty insurance increased on renewal at an average of 0.7 percent worldwide.
According to the insurance news briefing from Marsh, “Underlying these market conditions are very strong capacity and increased support for business among some global insurers for both catastrophe- and non-catastrophe-exposed property risks.” It went on to say that “However, property rates rose in the U.S. Northeast and insurers restricted coverage for flood-exposed properties through increased retentions or peril-specific sublimits following October’s Superstorm Sandy.”
At the same time, this insurance news announcement also pointed out that the property rates increased within the Northeastern U.S. regions, and insurers limited their flood exposed property coverage by way of peril-specific sub-limitations or higher retentions after the Superstorm.
