Confidence in insurance sector drops as losses, regulation and soft market bite
The latest ICAEW/Grant Thornton UK Business Confidence Monitor (BCM) has revealed that a year of catastrophic losses, on-going soft pricing and regulatory uncertainty has hit confidence in the insurance sector hard.
According to the index, confidence in the insurance, banking and finance sector is at its lowest level since the first quarter of 2010. Since then the BCM Confidence Index for the sector has fallen by two thirds to +12.0.
Peter Allen, head of the financial services group at Grant Thornton, said: “For the insurance industry, 2011 so far has been characterised by a series of expensive catastrophes which have hit profitability – but not sufficiently to create a turn in the pricing cycle.
“Natural
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