Postcard from IUMI: Premiums, profitability, cyber, war and reinsurance

4% Reinsurance sources say loss-hit programs could face 10% to 20% rate increases By Michael Jones and George Abbott Sept 24 (The Insurer) — Discussions at this year’s International Union of Marine Insurance conference touched on premium growth and profitability, the Middle East conflict, upcoming reinsurance renewals and the threat cyber risk to the marine market. Headline premium growth figures for global marine insurance, in particular cargo and hull, were an important topic of conversation at the event. 4%. Much of this growth was attributed to currency effects and growth in China.

But concerns remain that this growth has not necessarily placed the market in a healthier position. Although the claims environment was favourable ​in 2025, with no major losses significant enough to influence the market more widely, IUMI’s cargo committee chair Mike Brews said the segment had to ​contend with additional capacity and increased competition. "Overall, the ​cargo market softened in 2025 rather than correcting, and that pattern ‌has ⁠continued into 2026," Brews said. For hull, IUMI’s ocean hull committee chair Ilias Tsakiris said a bigger fleet, higher values and a weaker US dollar had all pushed up premiums without a single rate increase.

Tsakiris said existing insurers were defending market share while new capacity continued to enter, giving brokers alternative options and contributing to repeated renewal reductions. He said pressure to retain and grow premium income appeared to be influencing risk selection, adding that “retaining income should never come at the cost of weaker technical underwriting”. Hormuz: Open Or Closed? Whether the Strait of Hormuz is open or closed divided naval speakers at IUMI, while insurance representatives emphasised that potential blocking and trapping claims would require vessel-by-vessel assessment.

Asked about the differing views, IUMI president Frédéric Denèfle said individual owners would have to put forward a valid argument as to why they couldn’t leave when thousands of other ships had. “And then it will be a case-by-case analysis as usual into legal matters,” Denèfle said. The naval representatives offered more categorical assessments. Royal Netherlands Navy fleet commander Rear Admiral George Pastoor described shipping as “completely stopped”, although he acknowledged “a few transits nowadays”.

US Rear Admiral Matt Kawas directly challenged that account. “While that may have been true to a degree at one point, I can see every night that the Strait of Hormuz is not closed,” he said. Kawas cited more than 2,000 US-coordinated transits and three viable routes, recommending passage along the Omani coast. 5 billion and $2 billion.

What Will Reinsurance Renewals Look Like? Another issue discussed during the event was how reinsurance renewals may unfold, both for broader marine and energy treaties and the International Group’s excess-of-loss program. For the former, reinsurance market sources said renewals would be contingent on overall loss exposure. Those without losses would likely face downward pressure, driven by ample market capacity, with pricing potentially down around 10%.

Accounts with one major loss, whether from Dali reserve increases, the Middle East conflict, downstream market losses or the realisation of aviation leasing claims, are expected to renew around flat to slightly down, one senior reinsurance market source said. They added that programs exposed to multiple losses are expected to face rate increases of 10% to 20%, albeit this would be below what the reinsurance market would hope for. Sources also discussed how the Dali loss may affect the International Group’s excess-of-loss renewal.

Three sources said they thought increased limit would be unlikely as they believed courts would merely tailor awards to whatever limit was present in future. Two of those sources added that there may be more questions at the bottom of the program since the first layer’s retention, which attaches at $100 million, has not changed for a number of years despite sizeable inflationary pressures. They said this had turned the first layer into a working layer every year. Cyber: Nice To Have Or A Necessity?

Suspected cyber compromises involving two US-bound tankers in August helped put marine cyber exposure on the agenda at IUMI. Astaara managing director James Cooper said recent events were prompting greater interest from shipowners in specialist protection. ” he told The Insurer. Ship-finance banks are also beginning to question whether owners should be required to purchase marine cyber insurance as a condition of financing, Cooper said.

Such requirements could turn an optional purchase into a financing necessity for affected owners. For now, Cooper said shipowners were still weighing whether the product was a necessity or a “nice thing to cover”. How that demand will be served remains unclear. The Swedish Club and Chaucer already offer marine cyber policies but it remains to be seen if cyber becomes a typical service provided by all marine insurers.