Global economic and political uncertainty has had little impact on global insurance programmes, according to the second annual Airmic casualty benchmarking survey. The key issues remain consistent with last year’s results with buyers’ biggest concerns relating to global compliance with local tax laws and with legal, regulatory and insurance regulations. Another top priority was the need to get policies issued in a timely fashion.

Other issues where there was a high degree of stability in the opinions expressed were:

•retentions, liability limits and types of insurance programme remain broadly very similar to 2010;
•single global programmes continue to be preferred for excess casualty, with 76% choosing this option; and
•13% of companies have separate programmes for the US and the rest of the world, with just 7% choosing to purchase their cover locally.

Captive insurers continue to be an important source of risk financing, with 62% of respondents using them in their casualty programmes.

The benchmarking survey was sponsored by Chartis who, in their overview, draw attention to a contradiction between the economic environment and the insurance strategies employed by many companies.

“Very little has changed in the responses of risk managers from last year despite the many significant events of the year,” says Russell Meagher, head of major accounts at Chartis. “It would suggest that, for some, reacting to economic and legislative changes takes longer than expected – in some cases because of the complexity of the changes, and of cost constraints particularly in the current climate.”

Airmic technical director Paul Hopkin said: “This has been another most interesting and revealing exercise. There’s a wealth of detail in this report for the benefit of insurance buyers. It will be very interesting next year to see how the market has responded to these pressures.”

The 87 respondents represent companies with a total annual turnover of well above £100bn, with 62% of them employing at least 10,000 people.

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