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Specialist underwriter Emergence has officially launched an excess of loss (XOL) cyber policy this week, finally adding the once-bespoke solution to its standard offering.
Jeff Gonlin, Emergence’s head of underwriting and product development, said the move comes as a growing number of businesses demand substantial cyber coverage from their suppliers.
“It’s common practice to require public liability, professional indemnity and other insurances with limits of $10 million, $20 million or more,” he said. “As cyber insurance becomes mainstream, business partners are expected to carry meaningful cyber limits, too.”
With many insurers reluctant to provide more than $10 million coverage, Emergence’s excess of loss policy will sit above the primary insurer and only kick in once the initial cap is reached.
Emergence’s XOL policy will also mirror the underlying policy, rather than what the underwriter’s standard cyber policy would usually dictate – as a result, each program will still be a bespoke solution which has been considered on its individual merits.
“Among other things, we’re looking at who the primary insurer is, how financially secure they are, what their skillset is, how they’ve underwritten this individual risk, and what their incident response capabilities are like,” said Gerry Power, Emergence’s national head of sales.
“We’ll assess the risks, come up with a view as to how we would have approached it, and we will then compare that to how the actual primary is underwritten – if their philosophy is the same as ours, then we’re comfortable sitting above that program.”
While Emergence’s latest announcement came just yesterday, Power also promised that more developments are on the near horizon.
“We are working on some fantastic stuff – some solutions that aren’t even in Australia yet,” he told Insurance Business. “We’ve been working on some of the things for over two years, trying to bring it to market, and we’re on the cusp of being able to announce something.”
