Analysis by market understanding firm Insurance DataLab indicates a major turnaround in underwriting achievement by non-life syndicates at Lloyd’s.
According to Insurance DataLab, which examined individual conglomerate accounts, the aggregate underwriting profit by Lloyd’s syndicates in 2021 amounted to £1.2 billion. In 2020, the related result was an underwriting loss worth £2.1 billion.
“The Lloyd’s market has backfired strongly from the COVID-19 pandemic, buoyed by falling claims and substantial rate increases across many business lines,” said Insurance DataLab co-founder Matt Scott, whose center noted a 13% jump in syndicates’ gross written dividend and a 24% decline in gross claims.
Insurance DataLab went on to accentuate that the £13.5 billion claims figure for last year is even tinier than 2019’s £15.3 billion.
Meanwhile, Scott added that rate increases have slowed since the outset of 2022, with some business lines now seeing their lowest boosts since the third quarter of 2019.
“This, combined with ongoing claims inflation fuelled by the global ration chain crisis, will be of concern to syndicates, and controlling claims costs and operating expenses will be a key battlefield for the industry over the coming months,” he affirmed.
It was noted that the market’s main business lines all enjoyed positive underwriting results except for third-party liability, which underwent 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 loss 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 lessened property claims, which fell by a fifth in the deadest period.
