Premiums in the private auto insurance sector rose at a greater rate in 2014’s third quarter than they have during the same period for the past 10 years, says a new analysis from SNL Financial.
The 30 auto writers with the largest market share raised premiums at an average rate of 5.13% last quarter, adding 4.86% year over year to reach $42.98 billion in direct premiums written.
Roughly one-third of these insurers reported increases in business of more than 5%, including auto insurance leader
State Farm, which reported a 6.13% increase and
GEICO who led increases with year over year growth of more than 10.31%.
“GEICO appears to be on the verge of passing $20 billion in annual auto premium in 2014,” SNL wrote. “GEICO has never reported a negative year-over-year growth rate in any quarter in the past 10 years.”
Both overall growth and growth in premiums is attributed to high auto physical damage, for which personal auto damage accounts for 91.78% of all reports.
The year over year changes for the top 30 writers of personal auto insurance includes:
