The useful new 2024 US Cyber Outlook Report from Risk Placement Services (RPS) notes that carriers reduced premiums, increased limits and softened requirements for some cyber controls when ransomware losses declined last year.
But this “buyer’s market” is unlikely to continue, predicts Steve Robinson, national cyber practice leader at RPS and his team. “The cycle between hard and soft markets has been quick and volatile — much more compressed than the slowly evolving cycles experienced across other insurance lines,” concludes RPS.
The company predicts a correction, potentially driven by losses from factors including new AI-enabled attacks. Rate hikes and increasing underwriting scrutiny will follow, likely starting with government, industrial/manufacturing and financial sectors.
So what are agents and brokers to do? For one thing, set expectations among customers that rates and required controls may well increase at renewal time.