Directors' and Officers' Market Update 2023

These updates provide an analysis of the current conditions in the market for Directors' and Officers' (D&O) insurance in Great Britain and Europe for international and domestic companies and the impact this has on board directors, non-exec directors and insurance buyers. The analysis in this update is based on our own observations of the market and using WTW proprietary data unless otherwise stated.

Read our latest Market Update

• Competition between insurers has been strong in the latter part of 2022 and early 2023. Perhaps also influenced by lower claims notifications and US Securities Class actions, this had led to significant softening in rates in Q1 2023.
• In Q1 2023, 83% of clients saw their primary layer renew flat or with a decrease on last year’s premium whilst 87% saw their excess layers renew flat or with a decrease.
• Insurers have also continued to soften policy terms and are increasingly willing to underwrite business using WTW’s proprietary wording (DARCstar), a new version of which has just been launched this year to incorporate the latest improvements.
• Notifications in Q4 2022 continued the downward trend and were at the lowest levels since 2014. However, indications from our claims team are that notifications in Q1 2023 are up compared with 2022.
• According to The Stanford Law School/Cornerstone’s Securities Class Action Class Clearinghouse, US Securities Class Actions for 2021 and 2022 were down from the historic highs of 2017-2020 , with 2022 being even lower than 2021 (and the lowest level since 2014).

Looking forwards, 2023 has started extremely well with most of our clients continuing to see significant decreases in their premiums. The London insurance market is responding strongly, with good competition and better terms and we expect this trend to continue for the rest of 2023. In addition to the launch of the 2023 version of DARCstar, we will also be releasing DARCstar Private Equity 2023, CRIMEstar 2023 and a new Side A DIC facility.

Authors

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Angus Duncan

Executive Director
Coverage Specialist, FINEX

email Email phone +44 (0)20 3124 8386

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Louise Dennerståhl

Head of FINEX Western Europe

email Email phone +46 73 250 59 64

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