6 November 2015News

Undisciplined underwriting top threat to growth: Guy Carp

Undisciplined and unprofitable underwriting has once again been ranked as the leading threat to plans for growth.

This is one of the findings from Guy Carpenter’s fourth annual survey at the 2015 Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCIAA) annual meeting.

One third of respondents ranked undisciplined underwriting as the leading threat, with concerns around catastrophe and non-catastrophe losses rising slightly year over year to 24 percent, compared with 19 percent in 2014.

On the other hand,nearly half (48 percent) of the respondents believe new products present the most significant opportunity to expand business in 2016, up from 40 percent in 2014.

“This is followed by new geographic markets (24 percent), mergers and acquisitions (14 percent), talent acquisition (9 percent) and new distribution channels (5 percent),” said the broker.

The survey also found that nearly half (49 percent) of the respondents believe cyber security is an area most in need of innovation, followed by big data management (27 percent), predictive analytics (14 percent), and catastrophe modelling (10 percent).

Cyber also claimed the top spot as the most threatening emerging risk, jumping to 65 percent from 40 percent in 2014. A quarter of the respondents ranked climate change as the most threatening emerging risk, followed by terrorism at 10 percent.

Tim Gardner, chief executive officer (CEO) of US operations for Guy Carpenter, said: “Cyber risk, climate change and terrorism continue to pose a serious threat not only to the insurance industry, but also to governments, businesses and communities around the world.

“We as an industry have the opportunity to address these emerging risks head-on, with innovative solutions and new product development that can transform these potential challenges into growth opportunities. At Guy Carpenter, we continue to invest in the future by helping our clients see ahead of the curve in order to gain a sustained competitive advantage.”