ADRIAN RUIZ: Yeah, sure. Firstly, we are seeing new buyers across all segments. We have seen some large complex business materialize in the new buyer space. But most of the new buyers that we are seeing are in the mid-market space. Perhaps this is not a surprise, as the penetration for cyber insurance in most geographies and, certainly, the mid-market segment is very low.
But I think it's also important to remember that the new business cycle always takes time. I think the shortest we've seen, and I think this is a very exceptional circumstance when a new buyer goes from beginning to end in less than six months. We're seeing more the average time it takes to convert from beginning to end, probably in the region of 9 to 15, probably 18 months.
And, naturally, we've seen cases that take longer than that. I mentioned the new business cycle because it's important to remember that during the hard market that we experienced a couple of years ago, there were fewer opportunities coming into the London market. There was less appetite. It was a bit stricter-- everything around controls.
So what happened is that fewer clients started that process. More of them are starting the process now as the market conditions continue being favorable to clients. So we believe that we will all see more conversion with new business in the coming months. It's just important to continue being consistent. I think that's, perhaps, the key message-- that we've done a lot of work in making sure we have more robust cyber hygiene with most of our clients, all of them. Now, we need to make sure that as a market, we give a consistent message for the future, that we provide the same coverage and flexibility that we are doing in order to make sure that those clients that are now coming to the London market, that they don't get any surprises later. And I'm sure that by doing that, we will continue seeing growth in this segment.
AMBER PERCIVAL: Great. Thank you. That's a great answer. My other question is, what are we seeing from overseas markets in terms of service levels and coverage offered locally?
ADRIAN RUIZ: That's a very good question. I think it's important to remember that local markets are very, traditionally, they have always been very customer orientated and always looking to grow their market share. There's more capacity available locally as well. And in addition, what we are seeing as well is that local markets are offering more commission than what they were offering this time last year. We're seeing levels of 20, 25 points, in some cases. And so that, clearly, is something for all of us to bear in mind.
However, at the same time, the London market has an edge when it comes down to coverage. The type of solutions that we find in the London market is superior. It could be down to authority that some underwriters have. Maybe they don't have enough authority to underwrite everything that their offices in London can offer, probably, but also, the understanding of the brokers locally sometimes is not as broad as what we see in the London market. So we can definitely enrich some of those conversations if we work more closely with our partners in the London market.
AMBER PERCIVAL: Thanks, Adrian. That's a great answer. And my final question to you is, what are WTW doing to maximize opportunities for London markets who might be competing with local insurers? And how can we work together to bring business to London?
ADRIAN RUIZ: Well, firstly, I just want to stress the point to make on the first question about consistency. I think that has to become our baseline. If we continue offering those type of solutions to clients in terms of coverage, in terms of appetite, in terms of premiums that we're seeing, then that puts us in a great position to capitalize the opportunities that we are seeing.
And we are seeing them. We're seeing an increase in business coming into the London market. And one of the things that we're doing is, firstly, we need to continue growing that pipeline. We're doing a lot of work with all geographies.
With some, we have been more successful in creating those pipelines. The second thing that we are doing is to qualify those opportunities, maybe prioritize some of them, and identifying prospects where London can be a key differentiator, either depending on the coverage that they need to obtain, the industry that they operate in-- it could be maybe contractual requirements as well. So provided we focus on the areas of where London can be a key differentiator-- again, coverage-- I'm pretty confident that we can continue seeing growth in this market.
AMBER PERCIVAL: Thank you so much, Adrian, for joining us here. Unfortunately, that's all we have time for today, but please join us for our next edition.
