Cyber Market Shake-Up: Softening Trends, Rising Claims, and Broker Strategies for 2025

Why It Matters

A softer cyber‑insurance market combined with rising claim costs creates a critical window for brokers to expand coverage and for firms to strengthen cyber risk controls, shaping profitability and resilience across the sector.

Key Takeaways

• Cyber insurance market continues softening with 10‑15% premium reductions.
• New capacity from insurtechs and MGAs drives looser underwriting standards.
• Claims ratios remain high, creating tension between rising losses and lower premiums.
• Brokers must demonstrate client risk management and control frameworks to insurers.
• Focus areas include third‑party risk, AI data handling, and social engineering defenses.

Summary

The panel on Insurance Business TV examined the evolving cyber‑insurance landscape, noting that the market remains soft and is further softening as insurers trim premiums and tighten risk selection.

Premiums have fallen 10‑15% in the mid‑tier space, driven by new capacity from insurtechs, MGAs and recent capital infusions such as the SOA‑Aspen acquisition. Underwriters are loosening traditional underwriting standards, offering larger limits up to $10‑15 million, while claim ratios stay elevated—42% in the U.S. in 2023, edging toward 50%.

Scott Wilford highlighted that only about 20% of midsize firms carry cyber coverage, framing the soft market as a recruitment window. Anthony Smith cited the post‑COVID surge in ransomware and the subsequent premium over‑correction, and both stressed the importance of external risk‑profiling tools and reinsurance capacity of roughly $800 billion.

For brokers, the takeaway is to act as risk‑management partners, showcasing clients’ control environments, third‑party oversight, AI data practices and social‑engineering safeguards. Doing so unlocks higher‑limit placements and positions firms to capture the untapped demand as insurers push for longer‑term relationships.

Original Description

In this Cyber Insurance Power Panel, Insurance Business TV brings together leading voices to examine the challenges brokers face in today’s evolving market. Featuring Anthony Smit, Cyber Risk and Insurance Consultant at WTW in Sydney, and Scott Wilford, Executive Director at Oracle Group in Melbourne, the discussion explores the dynamics of a softening cyber market, where the risks are most pronounced, and what this means for brokers and their clients. Gain timely insights into pricing, risk trends, and the strategies needed to navigate a shifting cyber landscape.