Annual Insurance Review 2022

Hello and welcome to RPC's Annual Insurance Review – a look back at the events that shaped the insurance market in 2021 and a look forward towards what to expect in 2022.

In last year's review we attempted to pick up the pieces of the devastating impact of Covid-19's emergence.  If anything, this year there remains a sense of waiting to see exactly what the longer-term impact of Covid will be.

Business interruption aside, many Covid related claims remain nascent, only likely to be fully realised once the sequence of easing and then re-imposing lockdown restrictions has been broken and the true financial and economic impact of the events of the last 2 years starts to become clear.  At the time of writing at the end of 2021, the emergence of the fast-spreading Omicron variant has led to yet further restrictions being imposed around the world.  It therefore appears that the next 12 months will not be the return to business as usual that had perhaps been hoped for.

Of course, the claims environment will be heavily influenced by the overall global economic outlook.  High levels of corporate insolvencies continue to be predicted, but have not yet arisen. The impact of the withdrawal of unprecedented levels of government support across many jurisdictions will take some time to be revealed.  A boom in insolvencies (and the rise in claims of many kinds likely to follow) seems ever more probable, especially as further lockdown measures persist whilst business subsidies fall away.  But then again, similar was predicted following the credit crunch but did not ever quite come to pass.

As ever with our Annual Review, you can jump straight to your own business class / global geographical sector for expert insights in your chosen field.  Alternatively, reading the Review in full will provide you with a complete overview of what has impacted the insurance market globally in the last 12 months.

This year, as well as Covid, key themes include:

• The impact, across a range of sectors, of big increases in cyber-attacks, especially the use of ransomeware (reported to be up 25% in Asia and to have doubled according to the UK's GCHQ)
• Continued, and the risk of growing, civil and political unrest across the world, driven in part by rebellion again Covid lockdown measures
• Global supply chain and labour issues, impacted by Covid, other one-off events and (in the UK) Brexit

But of course the biggest growing issue, as foreshadowed in last year's Review, was the increasing importance of ESG around the world and across all sectors.  This year, for example, you can read more about insurers acting as agents for imposing affirmative ESG change on policyholders and vendors; ESG claims risks arising from investors, employees and others; and regulatory and governmental intervention in many jurisdictions.

It's been another extraordinary year.  From all at RPC we look forward to working with you to help you make the best of whatever challenges and opportunities await and wish you all a prosperous and healthy New Year. 

 To find out more, explore this year's highlights below or download the full Review.