Trade Credit Insurance in Europe

Trade Credit Insurance in Europe is a report about the market for trade credit cover in ten countries: Austria; Belgium; France; Germany; Italy; the Netherlands; Poland; Spain; Switzerland; and the UK. In addition to documenting the development of the market value in each country from 2010 to 2014, the report also divides it for 2015 according to six key segmentations:

• between small customers with an annual turnover of less than EUR 5 million and larger insured entities with a turnover above this threshold;

• between single-risk and annual policies;

• between export and domestic trade credit insurance;

• for export trade credit insurance alone, between protection acquired for political risks and cover bought for business risks;

• between business underwritten by domestic insurers and that dealt with by underwriters based outside of the country in question and with no branch in it;

• and between business intermediated by brokers and that underwritten directly.

These unique market splits are based in part on a survey of leading brokers and underwriters of trade credit insurance in each country. This same survey also quantifies the degree to which underwriters of this type of cover are utilised by brokers on a regular basis, gives an input into Finaccord's estimates for the market shares of underwriters which are expressed as a likely percentage range (e.g. 5.0% to 7.5%), highlights the most important brokers of trade credit insurance in each country, provides a basis for commentary surrounding distribution channels used for this type of policy, and informs Finaccord's forecasts for the market value in each country through to 2018.

Key findings from the executive summary of this report include:

• gross written premiums for trade credit insurance across these ten countries increased from around EUR 3.90 billion in 2010 to around EUR 3.97 billion in 2014 representing a compound annual growth rate of 0.5% in nominal terms;

• nevertheless, while the market value might appear to be stagnant at an overall level, this masks some important dynamics that appear to be occurring within it;

• for example, across the ten countries combined, it is estimated that the value of the market for single risk policies may have expanded by more than 70% between 2013 and 2015;

• furthermore, premiums for export trade credit insurance are likely to have moved up by more than 20% over the same period of time with the value attributable to cover for political risks rising by almost 40%;

• in addition, there is evidence to suggest that the market shares of the leading trio – namely, Atradius, Coface and Euler Hermes – are being gently eroded which is likely to be partly a consequence of growing demand for alternative products such as single risk and political risk policies.

For further information about this research, please access the table of contents and series prospectus by clicking on the corresponding links to the left-hand side of this page, or e-mail [email protected].