Today, Amwins, a leading distributor of specialty insurance products and services, released their comprehensive State of the Market report focusing on Cyber, providing a detailed analysis of current market trends, including pricing, capacity and emerging risks, equipping brokers and clients with valuable insights to navigate the complex cyber insurance market.

“Our State of the Market report goes beyond just outlining current conditions – it serves as a strategic resource for brokers to leverage when securing optimal solutions for their clients,” said Matt Donovan, executive vice president at Amwins Brokerage. “By staying ahead of emerging trends and deeply understanding evolving risks, brokers are equipped to provide informed, forward-thinking advice in this rapidly changing market.”

Market Overview

The cyber insurance market has seen a significant shift since early 2023, softening considerably and presenting more favorable conditions for buyers. Renewals are often coming in at level or below expiring pricing, despite increasing claims activity. This shift is driven by improved capacity from both new market entrants and existing carriers expanding their offerings, including limits up to $10 million.

“Cyber insurance is now an essential component of comprehensive risk management, and insureds are wise to understand the scope of coverage, and oftentimes more importantly, have a familiarity with the breach response process and carrier-approved/appointed vendors,” Donovan continues. “Early communication to the carrier and breach response vendors greatly improves both the severity and recovery time resulting from an event.”

Key Trends and Insights

• Expanded Underwriting Appetite: The market has seen a broadening of underwriting criteria, with more carriers willing to consider higher-risk operations such as casinos, fintech and crypto. However, municipalities continue to face challenges due to inadequate cyber controls.
• Improved Terms and Conditions: As competition increases, insurers are more willing to eliminate sublimits and coinsurance, particularly on ransomware coverage. Higher sublimits are now available for cybercrime, including invoice manipulation and social engineering.
• Emerging Coverage Enhancements: Certain aspects of cyber coverage available in the marketplace are expanding, namely non-IT products and services suppliers dependent business interruption/system failure. There are various shades of this coverage extension, but dependent business interruption events stemming beyond an insured’s IT service providers has become more widely available.
• Emerging Coverage Issues: Brokers should be aware of restrictive endorsements and exclusions becoming more prevalent, such as reimbursement language for ransomware, exclusions for unsupported software, failure to patch, overly-broad critical infrastructure and war exclusions, and onerous waiting periods for business income loss related to system failures.
• Persistent Ransomware Concerns: Ransomware remains a significant concern due to the severity of demands and the unpredictability of targets. Despite an overall decrease in payments, ransomware attacks continue to rise, prompting a need for stronger multifactor authentication controls and enhanced cyber resilience strategies.

To read the full report, please visit: Amwins State of the Market Report 2024: A Focus on Cyber.

About Amwins

Amwins is one of the largest independent wholesale distributors of specialty insurance products in the U.S., dedicated to serving retail insurance agents by providing property and casualty products, specialty group benefits, and administrative services. Based in Charlotte, N.C., the company operates through more than 155 offices globally and handles premium placements in excess of $33 billion annually.