SLTX Evaluates 2016 Premium, Filing Data

Austin, Texas – Norma Essary, Executive Director of the Surplus Lines Stamping Office of Texas (SLTX), presented data on excess and surplus lines insurance totals year to date at the company’s fourth quarter board meeting on December 6, 2016. Essary noted that the office has also been monitoring trends among policies and has seen a growth in surplus lines specialty coverages involving flood, terrorism, and cyber liability.

The amount of flood policies in the state of Texas have increased by 159 percent since 2010, data shows.

“We truly wanted to look at Texas flood and be able to assess what’s happening there, because there’s been a 51 percent increase from 2014 to 2015,” Essary said.

According to data gathered from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), there were 6 disaster declarations in the state of Texas between May 2015 and June 2016. In comparison, there were 5 disaster declarations in the state between 2007 and 2010. The increase in flood events across the state and the impact of these events led to an increase in policies in both the primary and surplus lines market.

Aside from flood, the SLTX data shows that terrorism policies have increased by 122 percent since 2010, and cyber liability policies have increased by 747 percent in the same time period.

Essary said that SLTX received a request from the Federal Insurance Office regarding data it collected on cyber liability policies, and she predicts that the office will receive more requests of this type as interest in these policies grows.

SLTX, which is in the midst of an information and technology revitalization project, will soon be able to better accommodate these requests. Essary said that most of the data was collected manually by the office, but one goal of the technology project is automation of information, which means that SLTX will be able to capture more precise data.

Tara Mitchell, SLTX Director of Information & Technology Services, said that SLTX is looking to improve usability and efficiency of the system. As part of the project, SLTX will also be updating its public facing website, which will be completed in early 2017. The aim of the project is to modernize SLTX and improve its market presence among a variety of users.