ABI: Cyber payout rate high but uptake too low

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has revealed that 99% of 207 claims made on ABI-member cyber insurance policies in 2018 were paid.

This is one of the highest claims acceptance rates across all insurance products in the UK.

Despite this, the ABI has warned that take up of cyber insurance by businesses in the UK is still worryingly low.

Cyber cover provides services focused on preventing a breach in the first place, as well as helping with the recovery and management of costs associated with an attack.

The current cyber insurance market is estimated to be worth less than £100 million in the UK, making it smaller than a tenth of the size of the UK’s pet insurance market, which is worth more than £1.1 billion.

This means that millions of small businesses in the UK could be at risk, with just 11% thought to have a specific cyber insurance policy in place.

A contributing factor for this is the inability of insurers to access anonymous cyber breach data, which limits the potential of the market by preventing them from pricing risk more accurately.

The ABI has asked the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to make this information more publicly available, but the ICO is yet to agree.

ABI director of general insurance policy James Dalton said: “Cyber insurance is a valuable product—the claims acceptance rates speak for themselves and the additional support a business receives, beyond dealing with the pure financial losses is a key attribute of most cyber insurance policies, too often overlooked.”

“Data is key to insurers’ ability to better understand and more accurately price cyber risk. We need the ICO to work with us to find what data can be shared to help insurers provide more cover to the many businesses that need it in this digital age.”

Claims Media