Insurers continue to renew commercial property and casualty insurance programs at deeply depressed rates, despite depressed balance sheets, reports the Risk and Insurance Management Society’s Q3 Benchmark Survey.
Advisen Ltd. administers the RIMS Benchmark Survey, which tracks changes in insurance policy renewal prices as reported by North American corporate risk managers.
Property insurance policies renewed in the 2009 Q3 with essentially no change in average premium, the survey found.
Directors' and officers' (D&O) liability policies also renewed with no change in average premium. Nevertheless, the D&O market remains divided between the financial institution segment, which was pummelled by the subprime mortgage meltdown and has seen premiums rise, and the rest of the market, which is still seeing premiums drift lower.
The average general liability premium fell 3.7%, the report said.
“Insurers have bounced back from the worst first quarter on record, but their results are still pretty grim,” says Dave Bradford, Advisen executive vice president and editor-in-chief of the survey.
“Carriers are posting underwriting losses, but in this recession, they have found it nearly impossible to push through rate increases except in a few especially distressed areas.”