Full-year growth will be lower than nine-month level
RSA wrote £2.3bn of net premium in the UK in the first nine months of 2011, up 7% on the £2.2bn it wrote in the same period of last year.
However the company warned that full-year UK premium growth for the full year would be marginally lower “given the competitive market conditions and our focus on driving targeted profitable growth.”
“The UK continues to deliver a strong top line performance in what remains a competitive market, driven by our continued focus on rate, targeted organic growth and deals,” the company said in a statement.
Driving the nine-month growth rate was a 13% increase in personal lines net written premium to £1.03bn (9M 2010: £918m). RSA said Tesco Pet and other deals contributed 12 percentage points of the overall personal lines growth, with rate on renewals contributing a further 7 points. Offsetting this was a 6 point reduction in volume, predominantly in motor, where the company continues to see large rate increases (see table below).
Commercial lines net premiums grew 2% to £1.28bn (9M 2010: £1.26bn). This reflected a 12% drop in mid-market premiums to £334m, offset by growth of 7% in marine to £219m and in Risk Solutions Europe of 24% to £115m.
RSA added that commercial motor premiums were flat with the same period of 2010.
RSA’s exposure to peripheral European government debt is £146m or around 1% of its total portfolio. The majority of the exposure is held to back the liabilities of the company’s Irish and Italian operations.
RSA UK rate rises:
Personal lines
Motor 19%
Household 6%
Commercial lines
Motor 14%
Liability 2%
Property 5%
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