A Firm Foundation: How Insurance Supports the Economy

Role of credit/mortgage insurance

Specialized insurance products protect lenders and borrowers, shielding businesses such as exporters from customer defaults and facilitating the financing of mortgages and other transactions. These products include credit insurance for short-term receivables.

Credit insurance for customer defaults

Credit insurance protects merchants, exporters, manufacturers and other businesses that extend credit to their customers from losses or damages resulting from the nonpayment of debts owed them for goods and services provided in the normal course of business. Credit insurance facilitates financing, enabling insured companies to get better credit terms from banks. The high combined ratio in 2010 reflects the end of the crisis in financial markets.

Credit Insurance, 2011-2020

($000)

Year Net premiums written (1) Annual percent change Combined ratio (2) Annual point change (3)
2011 1,490,135 10.8% 94.5 -32.7 pts.
2012 1,457,796 -2.2 91.3 -3.2
2013 1,167,315 -19.9 74.9 -16.4
2014 1,191,026 2.0 74.7 -0.1
2015 1,070,048 -10.2 76.5 1.8
2016 1,118,611 4.5 92.1 15.6
2017 1,221,008 9.2 90.8 -1.4
2018 1,511,025 23.8 93.6 2.9
2019 1,860,939 23.2 84.8 -8.9
2020 1,792,467 -3.7 107.0 22.2

(1) After reinsurance transactions, excludes state funds.
(2) After dividends to policyholders. A drop in the combined ratio represents an improvement; an increase represents a deterioration.
(3) Calculated from unrounded data.

Source: NAIC data, sourced from S&P Global Market Intelligence, Insurance Information Institute.

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