Insurers Unable To Halt Hull Rates Fall

Despite calls on underwriters by marine insurance industry leaders to sell tightly written policies at sensible prices, most are succumbing to pressure to underwrite wide-ranging cover at low prices in an attempt to retain market share in a very competitive market. They are also signing up clients to three and five year insurance policies, meaning insurers are exposed regardless of future claims experience. And yet the industry seems unable to react.

At the annual conference of the International Union of Marine Insurers in Oslo, a lone voice stood to try and bolster resistance.

Harry Keefe, senior underwriter of GRE Underwriting in New York, rose at the end of a three hour hull insurance session which had not addressed the main issue facing the industry.

 

He said, I feel like part of a herd thundering towards a precipice. But I am not a dumb animal, I am an intelligent human being with the ability to choose.