This Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) Insurance Market Report is published by Marsh’s Market Relationship Management EMEA team, to inform interested parties of developments in the insurance marketplace across the EMEA region.

We have surveyed ten lines of business, including marine and energy, across 41 countries. Marsh’s wholly owned network of insurance placement and business segment leaders in each country have provide the data and insights for this report.

Key trends seen in EMEA in the six months to December 2008:

Premium rates of most lines of insurance business across EMEA began to stabilise in the second half of 2008. While competition is still the dominating downward driver of rates in most markets, this is being offset by carriers’ need to increase prices due to increased claims notifications over the last two quarters. So whilst rates were still reducing in this time frame, they were doing so less than we reported in the EMEA Insurance Market Report for the first half of 2008.

Most of Eastern Europe remained stable with trends generally converging with those in the rest of Europe. There is ongoing interest from overseas insurers to enter these markets and when that happens there is an increased awareness of, and demand for, certain classes of business by local clients.

As a result of the global economic climate, loss ratios in the trade credit and financial institutions classes of business in particular have increased and the market has hardened. In other lines of business, clients are looking to cut their costs wherever possible, tendering their business out to multiple carriers and reducing sums insured.