GTR spoke to insurers and brokers at the annual conference of the Association of Trade Finance in the Americas (ATFA) on how the insurance market has evolved in the US since the financial crisis.

According to Donnie DiCarlo, senior vice-president of credit and political risk, Latin America, at Marsh, the financial crisis of 2008 was “a true time to test the market”. Luckily, insurance policies performed well with US$3bn to US3.5bn-worth of claims paid out, and bankers started to use insurance products more, he says.

Another trend he points out is the the desire by banks and insurers to work with law firms in order to make policy wording Basel III-compliant and achieve not only credit relief, but regulatory relief through insurance.

Lila Rymer, head of US underwriting, trade credit and political risk at Beazley, adds that US insurers and brokers have started to resort more and more to syndication as a way to share risk and split potential claims amounts.