Analysis by market intelligence firm Insurance DataLab shows a major turnaround in underwriting performance by non-life syndicates at Lloyd’s.
According to Insurance DataLab, which examined individual syndicate accounts, the aggregate underwriting profit by Lloyd’s syndicates in 2021 amounted to £1.2 billion. In 2020, the corresponding result was an underwriting loss worth £2.1 billion.
“The Lloyd’s market has bounced back strongly from the COVID-19 pandemic, buoyed by falling claims and significant rate increases across many business lines,” said Insurance DataLab co-founder Matt Scott, whose camp noted a 13% jump in syndicates’ gross written premium and a 24% decline in gross claims.
Insurance DataLab went on to highlight that the £13.5 billion claims figure for last year is even smaller than 2019’s £15.3 billion.
Meanwhile Scott added that rate increases have slowed since the beginning of 2022, with some business lines now seeing their lowest increases since the third quarter of 2019.
“This, combined with ongoing claims inflation fuelled by the global supply chain crisis, will be of concern to syndicates, and controlling claims costs and operating expenses will be a key battleground for the industry over the coming months,” he asserted.
It was noted that the market’s main business lines all enjoyed positive underwriting results except for third-party liability, which suffered an underwriting loss. In 2020, five out of the seven main business lines found themselves in the red in terms of underwriting.
Among those, property insurance took a £504.7 million beating in 2020, before emerging as the top-performing business line in 2021 with an underwriting profit of £510.2 million. The comeback was mainly attributed to reduced property claims, which fell by a fifth in the latest period.
