Content area
Full text
SYDNEY, Australia-Sharply higher rates and more-restrictive terms and conditions might prompt more Australian buyers to reconsider their risk financing programs and explore alternatives.
That is the conclusion of a recent survey by J.P. Morgan Securities Australia Ltd. and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu/Trowbridge Consulting, both of Sydney, that predicts an "explosion" in insurance premiums for corporate buyers in 2002.
The firming market will likely spur more corporations to consider various forms of self-insurance, such as captives, and to place more emphasis on loss control and disaster planning, said Peter Caldwell, national insurance industry group chairman for Deloitte.
The survey, which was released in December, polled 80 brokers, underwriters and reinsurers in the Australian market just prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
While the attacks have accelerated and deepened the price hardening in intemational insurance and reinsurance markets, Mr. Caldwell noted that the Australian market reached its softest point about two...