With tough market conditions providing so little opportunity for growth, commercial insurers are starting to focus on brokers at the more profitable end of the market.

Report made available to ceoafrica revealed that insurers are ready to achieve this either through niche products, or by working with regional community brokers  who typically know their clients better, resulting in more profitable business.

Development Manager at SSP, Clinton Brown, declared that Commercial insurance could be "highly complex because it needs to be more specific and tailored to the individual needs of businesses. As a result, brokers are far more crucial partners for insurers in the commercial space than the personal one," he said.

Brown added that other insurers are looking at accessing emerging opportunities through UMAs (Underwriting Managing Agents), which have increased in popularity in the recent soft market conditions. "The majority of UMAs focus on commercial insurance and their smaller size and often, specialist nature make them more agile and responsive to the broker channel. UMAs enable insurers to access products or services that the insurer would not be able to provide themselves. This is especially true in terms of niche lines, where the cost of developing specific underwriting experience could otherwise be prohibitive," he explained.