RSA’s Direct Line deal highlights its refocus on industrial traces

RSA is pushing forward with its shift in the direction of industrial traces within the UK because it accomplished the acquisition of Direct Line’s brokered industrial traces operations in September 2023. This follows RSA’s exit from private motor insurance coverage in March 2023, amid rumours it would promote its complete private traces portfolio later this yr.

GlobalData’s 2022UK SME Insurance coverage Survey discovered that within the industrial house, Direct Line is strongest inside motor traces. It options within the prime 5 market shares for 2 of the 16 industrial insurance coverage merchandise GlobalData asks about single van insurance coverage (3.6%) and van fleet insurance coverage (3.9%). RSA didn’t characteristic within the prime 5 for any motor merchandise, so this buy instantly made RSA a a lot bigger participant within the industrial motor market.

The transfer from private to industrial traces seems to be a strong technique within the present local weather. Insurers within the private traces house are struggling to make a revenue. Motor insurance coverage has seen premiums rise by document quantities all through 2023 amid important claims inflation. In consequence, insurers have been struggling to maintain premiums aggressive. In the meantime, within the family insurance coverage market, the entire quantity of premiums and the variety of contracts each declined in 2022. There’s a barely completely different image within the industrial market; though industrial motor noticed a really small decline in 2022 (-0.3%) when it comes to premiums, industrial property grew by 18.5%.

As shoppers are regularly being squeezed by the cost-of-living disaster, private line merchandise have gotten tougher to make a revenue on. Whereas it has not been a straightforward interval for companies both, some traces (resembling industrial property) have continued to develop sharply. RSA repositioning as a industrial insurance coverage specialist due to this fact seems to be a coherent technique based mostly on the difficulties many insurers are having inside private traces.