Average commercial insurance prices around the world rose during the second quarter this year amid an uptick in insurance pricing for property lines (which continued to be affected by 2017 catastrophe losses) and increases in financial and professional lines.
The 2.3% average rise marks the third consecutive quarterly increase, according to the latest Global Insurance Market Index by major brokerage Marsh. Financial and professional line pricing continued to accelerate, increasing 3.3% on average, with much of the increase due to directors and officers (D&O) insurance pricing in multiple regions. Meanwhile, casualty prices declined 1.4% on average, continuing a trend of year-over-year declines stretching back to 2013.
“The global property insurance market continues to be impacted by last year’s losses, and we are now seeing increases in financial and professional lines pricing in several regions. However, overall pricing is generally stable across all lines of business and market capacity remains strong,” said Dean Klisura, president, global placement and specialties at Marsh.
Marsh saw prices trending in most regions with Australia averaging the largest increase at 13.7%, while prices decreased slightly in Continental Europe (-1.5%) and Asia (-0.4%).
Despite Australia’s pricing surge, Marsh said the global market remained stable overall, as the price changes were within a relatively narrow range across most product lines and geographies.
