Leading Insurance provider to the international freight transport industry, TT Club has published a mid-year trading update for the eight-month period 1 January – 31 August 2015.
Charles Fenton, Chief Executive of the TT Club, said: “the Club has had a good, stable first eight months of the year in spite of the on-going challenging insurance market conditions and a return to more normal levels of large claims than experienced in 2013 and 2014.”
The general environment in world trade during the last year as reported through Members’ turnovers has been slightly above the average seen in recent years, which, together with good new business acquisition, bolsters premium levels. The Club continues to benefit from excellent business retention. These positive effects are, however, counter-balanced by factors depressing premium rates, particularly resulting from low claims levels flowing from good Member records. As a result, gross earned premium for the period under review was US$116 million, a small reduction of 4.4% compared to the same period last year.
“The performance of attritional claims has been largely as expected,” continued Fenton, “Not surprisingly given our successful implementation of a strategy to rebalance the Club’s underwriting book.” However large claims have increased in number, Fenton reporting, “There are now seven incidents above US$1 million in the year, including claims arising from the explosion in Tianjin in August.” It is anticipated that this experience of increasing claims will result in a combined operating ratio marginally higher than in 2014, but still healthy.
AM Best carried out its annual assessment in May and, for the ninth successive year, the rating was affirmed as A- (Excellent) with a Stable outlook. In his review statement Fenton commented, “Best continue to recognise the support the industry demonstrates for the Club and noted the results of the customer satisfaction survey in 2014 which were the highest ever achieved.
TT Club’s continuing investment in loss prevention includes detailed claims analysis from which derives risk management advice for Members and the industry at large. Safety issues remain of primary concern and major resource is currently focused on the question of verified gross mass (VGM) of packed containers, which becomes mandatory worldwide on 1 July 2016. The Club is proactively ‘teasing out’ the implications for each party in the global supply chain.
