Howden Re’s Phil Bonner discusses ‘Opportunity in flux’, Howden’s 2025 CPRI report
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Howden is pleased to release its 2025 Credit and Political Risk Insurance report ‘Opportunity in flux’, revealing demand for political risk insurance is up 33% in response to trade disruption and economic shocks.
Despite rising demand and strong underwriting performance, growth lags, at less than half that of property and casualty and a fifth of cyber since 2019.
Research highlights the opportunity for the $50 billion credit and political risk market to diversify its risk pool to better serve clients and drive economic growth.
Phil Bonner, Managing Director, Global Specialty Treaty, Howden Re said 2025 was “always considered to be a milestone year.”
So far, he said 2025 has proved to be exactly that, even more so than most expected.
We’re only six months in and the outlook is already radically different and highly uncertain as geopolitical and macroeconomic forces converge to reset decision-making around trade and security in an increasingly fractured world,” said Bonner. “These fundamental changes follow a sequence of events – a global pandemic, the outbreak of several wars, commodity shocks, higher inflation – that reveal the extent of structural shifts in the global risk landscape.
Whilst the constant stream of news flow can paint a gloomy picture, credit and political risk insurance (CPRI) exists to help clients trade through times of elevated uncertainty by protecting their assets and lowering their cost of capital when committing to investments. At its core, CPRI enables economic growth by providing businesses, public sector agencies and lenders with the certainty needed to trade and invest.
“Despite the challenging macro backdrop, the market continues to outperform most other lines of business, which is testament to the risk and capital skill and expertise that pervades the value-chain, from clients to underwriters and brokers,” Bonner said.
Opportunity in flux argues that now is the time to draw in new entrants and for existing CPRI carriers to venture into new asset classes and territories.
However, some of the larger key reinsurers continue to write for the long term, with a mindset that terms and relationships shouldn’t change. Bonner believes that instead, the key to remaining at the forefront of the market is to write new products because they are untested.
“What we have seen is that the capacity is there, but much of the capacity is holding growth, opportunity, and ultimately purchasing back,” said Bonner. “This capacity, if it wants to remain with the best performing, most capable underwriting teams, needs to be more imaginative when it comes to understanding what the client’s needs are.”
Bonner said the key takeaway from the report is opportunity.
“Yes, risk is up in a highly fractured world, but providing protection to help clients trade and invest through such uncertainty is precisely why CPRI exists,” said Bonner. “Our market does this in a way no other can whilst achieving exceptional performance, as demonstrated by underwriting results that rival any other product line of insurance. With demand for protection now rising in response to global instability, our call to action for the market is to not only provide adequate supply but to also offer underwriting flexibility and imagination that keep up with clients’ changing needs.”