Brought to you by:

Arrival of hard market is also hard to predict

Harder market conditions are on the way, but the big question is when they will arrive, according to Marsh GM Placement Services Southern Region, Geoffrey Ferguson.

He told an Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance seminar in Melbourne last week it’s a case not of if, but when. “We’ll see an accelerated onset of harder market conditions this year,” he said. “I’m not quite sure, and if you talk to any resident expert in the industry, no one knows when it’s really going to happen.

“Traditionally, most hard markets have started with a couple of carriers trying to push rates up. London was talking about it. But we haven’t necessarily seen too much evidence of it.”

Swiss Re Client Services Director Tony Piper told the seminar active capital raisings and mergers and acquisitions in Britain and Japan may have a flow-on effect of market hardening in Australia.