NU Online News Service, Oct. 3, 7:03 p.m. – Top insurance executives continue to be optimistic about their companies and the insurance industry as a whole, according to results of an informal survey by KPMG L.L.P., New York.
KPMG conducted the survey by using an electronic system to poll 140 top executives at a recent insurance conference it sponsored.
KPMG researchers found that 59% of the executives expected life and health insurance premiums to grow, and 88% expected property-casualty premiums to grow.
Eighty-five percent rated the insurance industry's ability to increase profit margins over the next one to three years as strong or moderate, and 59% said their own companies would perform above or significantly ahead of expectations in the next year.
KPMG also measured executives' attitudes about competition, by asking the executives to identify the companies that would be their major competitors over the next three to five years. KPMG asked the same question at a similar conference in 2000.
When KPMG tallied the percentage of executives naming various types of companies as major competitive threats, "international financial services companies" plummeted to 21%, from 53%, and securities brokerage firms fell to 4%, from 5%.
Banks worried 11% of the executives, up from 4%.
