Michael Moran, CEO of Aon Inpoint.
Global commercial lines market worth $730 billion and will rise at an annual rate of 5.3 percent by 2021.
A series of commercial global P&C insurance market reports from Aon Inpoint, Aon’s data, analytics, engagement and consulting team, found that by 2021 the most rapid growth of premiums will be seen in cyber insurance products. In addition, the financial institutions, mining and minerals, and technology and media sectors are expected to expand rapidly in comparison to other industry segments. Aon’s series of global studies looked at insurance purchased by corporate, public sector and not-for-profit organisations between 2013 and 2017 and forecasted trends into 2021.
Over the past five years, cyber premiums saw the most significant growth at 23% annually and by 2021, Aon predicts that worldwide premiums will be worth $4 billion, a compound annual growth rate of 14.1 percent.
“As we look ahead, we are seeing a broad shift of companies putting a greater value on intangible assets, such as cyber and intellectual property,” said Michael Moran, CEO of Aon Inpoint. “There are multiple reasons for the increased focus and increased premiums ranging from financial statement protection due to a business interruption to the constantly evolving global regulatory environment including the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation.”
Across all types of commercial P&C insurance purchased, the manufacturing segment generated the highest premiums worldwide in 2017, worth approximately $111 billion. Following manufacturing came agriculture, fishing and forestry at $72 billion, boosted by the huge value of this segment in China and the U.S. While manufacturing will remain strong, premiums bought by financial institutions, the mining and minerals sector, and technology and media firms are expected to increase most rapidly through to 2021 with an annual growth rate of around 6% in each case.
Additional highlights from Aon’s series of reports:
• Global commercial P&C premiums were worth approximately $730 billion in 2017 and by 2021 will rise to almost $900 billion; within this total, U.S. commercial P&C insurance premiums were worth $274.5 billion in 2017 and are forecast to rise to $331.5 billion in 2021.
• Among the larger product categories, premiums for commercial auto insurance worldwide grew the fastest from 2013-2017 reaching $192 billion in 2017.
• Globally, workers’ compensation premiums stood at $83 billion, mainly due to their huge value in the U.S., having increased from $71 billion in 2013.
• Around $97 billion of the global commercial lines market is bought by micro enterprises (comprising self-employed individuals and entities with up to nine employees).
Moran added, “At this time, a standardised data set that describes the size and segmentation of commercial lines insurance does not exist in the market. Our research, which segments the global market in detail by product, industry and client size, fills an important gap, and can be used by insurers to identify new underwriting opportunities worldwide.”
Aon announced in May 2018 it will retire the business unit brands of Aon Benfield and Aon Risk Solutions, which follows the retirement of the Aon Hewitt business unit brand in 2017. This move was designed to increase the rate of innovation across the firm and make it easier for colleagues to work together to bring the best of Aon to clients. Aon has five specific global solution lines: Commercial Risk Solutions, Reinsurance Solutions, Retirement Solutions, Health Solutions and Data & Analytic Services.
Get the latest issue of FAnews