Asian insurance renewal rates still lag the west, up 3% in Q2: Marsh

Commercial insurances renewal prices rose 3% across Asia in the second quarter, led by 14.2% growth in the Philippines, and notable gains in financial and professional lines,  Marsh said in a regional update to its quarterly pricing index.

Financial and professional lines, including cyber, showed outlier high growth at 13% to match the prior quarter reading. Cyber brought rate hikes of 25 to 50%. D&O remained hotter than in core western markets with pricing increases between 10 and 15%. Readings varied wildly by geography from 2.5% in Indonesia to 24% in Singapore.

Across all segments, price growth in the Philippines proved an outlier, the only case of double-digit growth in a group of ten sample nations where the median rate of growth moved down quarter on quarter to a very mild 1.5%.

Price growth of 7.8% made Malaysia the second hottest Asian market, although those rates are down slightly from 8.6% in Q1 and from the 21.9% sudden spike in Q4 2021. Price growth in Hong Kong doubled to 7%.

Property insurance pricing rates rose 2% in the second quarter, the fifteenth consecutive quarter of increase. Nat cat risks and poor loss histories suffered higher rate increases. The ranking by nations matched that for overall insurance with Philippines, Malasia and Hong Kong with few to no rivals for their podium spots.

Casualty insurance pricing was flat, following increases of 2% in the prior two quarters. Insurers restricted capacity on excess layers and challenges were said to be "pronounced" for product recall and product liability.

The 3% Asian renewal growth rate continued to run well below the Marsh global renewal rate average, still at 9% in Q2. Asian rate growth peaked in Q3 2020, one quarter before the peak in global rate growth.

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