Lancashire reports a 14% increase in gross written premiums for first nine months of 2020

Lancashire Holdings’ gross written premiums increased to $658.7 million in the first nine months of 2020, a 14 percent increase on the figure reported for the same period in 2019.

Lancashire revealed the figure in its trading statement for the nine months ended 30 September 2020.

Lancashire said its catastrophe losses for the third quarter specifically were in the range of $65 million to $75 million. There was no change to its previously announced COVID-19 loss estimate of approximately $42 million.

Alex Maloney, group chief executive officer, called it a “uniquely challenging year to date,” but praised the resilience of Lancashire’s employees and the company’s business model and operations.

“We continue to see strengthening premium rate increases across the majority of our business portfolio, with RPIs of 117 percent for the quarter and 112 percent for the year to 30 September,” Maloney said. “I am encouraged by the opportunity these trends provide for meaningful and disciplined growth.”

He added: “As insurers, we expect to support our clients and to pay covered losses when they occur, and the sequence of both natural catastrophe and risk loss events during the year so far has impacted our, and the industry’s, profitability for the year to date. I would expect this to put further impetus on the industry to charge an adequate and sustainable price per unit of risk.”