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The Torus team polled some 111 risk managers during the Ferma Forum in early October in Stockholm, and found that overall they are most worried about factors that may restrict capacity, not least pressure on capital.
Some 29 per cent identified Solvency II as the biggest challenge to the European insurance market, followed closely by European credit downgrades (26 per cent) and catastrophe events that would impact insurers’ capital bases (23 per cent).
Other themes that were identified as key drivers in the European market include a rising demand for contingent business interruption (CBI) cover, an appetite for new capacity and products and an increasing trend among insurance buyers to share risk across multiple carriers.
The findings of the Torus survey, that was exclusively shared with Commercial Risk Europe, dovetailed neatly with CRE’s own annual Risk Frontiers survey of Europe’s leading risk managers published at the forum, particularly on the demand for more innovative products from insurers and CBI following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami and more recently flooding in Thailand.
Torus said that over 80 per cent of its respondents believe there is growing demand for CBI policies with companies increasingly focused on business continuity planning. Some 31 per cent think there will be a significant increase in demand.
Dermot O’Donohoe, CEO of Torus International, commented: “Contingent business interruption cover is a growing concern for risk managers following the impact of natural disasters in the first half of 2011. The challenge for the market is not just to deploy capacity but to provide the relevant expertise and work with clients to understand the nature of these exposures.”