Time to raise the bar

With the arrival of the Financial Conduct Authority and softening rates in parts of the market, this is not the time for complacency, says Clare Ryder

“The state of the market” is something that comes around periodically, turning up like the proverbial bad penny.

As is often the case, the market is much as it has always been – travelling an endless trajectory between profit and loss, then back again.

Rates hardened, particularly in motor, and insurers were restricting capacity to sections of the market in an attempt to improve results, spurred on by increasing claims costs, spiralling expenses and combined operating ratios which were looking