’Respondents displayed a bullish appetite for it,’ says statement 

Insurers have displayed a “bullish” appetite for growth in the sustainable energy market in 2023, a new survey has found.

Insurance broker Howden released its annual London market appetite survey yesterday (30 March 2023), which assessed underwriting appetite by line of business for the this year.

Conducted in December 2022, the survey of 43 insurers comprised a mixture of Lloyd’s syndicates and company markets.

Howden’s findings revealed that 80% of insurers planned for significant growth in sustainable energy, with an average planned gross written premium growth of 13% across respondents.

“The stand out class of business was sustainable energy,” a statement said.

“With energy transition and climate resilience at the top of the industry’s agenda, respondents displayed a bullish appetite for this class, with the majority of insurers planning for double digit growth, mainly driven by new business, rather than rate.”

However, the report warned that as this was the most popular line of business, competition for 2023 was set to be fierce, which may put further downward pressure on rates.                                                                           

’Reinforces impact’

Meanwhile, mainstay classes such as North American property and catastrophe bond (CAT) received muted responses from insurers, while political violence and terrorism came out top from an estimated risk adjusted rate change perspective – a measure of the underlying change in price allowing for the change in exposure.

“Building on last year’s report, this year’s findings reinforce the impact of global economic and geopolitical events, with the latter being a driving force in the growth achieved by political violence and terrorism and war classes,” a statement said.

Toby Pollard, Howden’s managing director, said: “Our focus on research is designed to help the entire value chain – clients, colleagues and insurers – understand the direction of travel within the London Market they operate within.

”This report’s insights and granular, line level detail, genuinely provides real client value through the application of market appetite across the Howden Broking Group portfolio.”