Outlook for 2023 positive despite ‘turbulent insurance cycle’ – Admiral

Insurer Admiral’s financial outlook is positive despite what the its chief executive Milena Mondini de Focatiis referred to as a “turbulent insurance cycle” in its full year results for 2022, published last week (8 March 2023).

In a briefing call with journalists, Mondini de Focatiis said: “This has been a turbulent insurance cycle – more than usual, with very high levels of inflation, supply chain issues [and] adverse weather.”

She noted that Admiral had paid attention to its underwriting to reflect higher inflation and increased its premiums to reflect higher claims inflation and frequency.

“As a result of these disciplines, our UK insurance business delivers profit slightly above 2019 pre-pandemic levels despite external challenges,” she explained.

”The results demonstrate that our business model is resilient and delivers good performance.

”We maintain a very disciplined approach, our focus remains on delivering good service for our customers that are growing in number.”

Admiral’s group turnover for 2022 reached £3.68m, up from £3.30m in 2019.

Looking after customers

The insurer’s customer base in the UK remained roughly flat in number, but Mondini de Focatiis said growth was driven by other products and international business in Europe, in particular.

She continued: “We believe that this discipline puts us in very strong [footing] for when the cycle turns and in the past few months there have been some positive signs that the outlook for 2023 is going to better.”

Despite this, she said that the insurer expects some level of uncertainty to persist.

“There is still uncertainty – particularly around inflation – on the severity of business interruption (BI). In the meantime, we continue to invest [and] innovate to make sure that we look after our customers,” she said.

In August 2022, the insurer launched it’s pet insurance division in the UK and also developed a new partnership and distribution channel for international insurance.

In addition to this, the insurer has a dedicated team supporting customers who are financially vulnerable.

“It’s important that we remain competitive and provide good service to our customers,” she added.