SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 5, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Carpenter Moore, the wholly-owned insurance brokerage subsidiary of The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ), has just released its annual global Directors & Officers Liability Insurance Peer Benchmarking Report. This comprehensive analysis contains comparable data on directors and officers (D&O) insurance purchasing trends.
The study found that industries experiencing the highest premiums were financial services, technology and life sciences, with the lowest premiums found in energy and manufacturing.
"We find that no matter the market cap segment, the three industry sectors that pay the most for D&O insurance are financial services, technology, and life sciences," said Lauri Floresca, Senior Managing Director and author of the Carpenter Moore D&O Benchmarking Report. She continued, "This is in line with data on securities class action filing rates, which consistently ranks those three industries as the most likely to face litigation. In 2007, the bulk of the 166 cases filed were brought against companies in those three industry sectors."
The 2007 Carpenter Moore D&O Benchmarking Report allows senior executives who make insurance policy renewal decisions to compare for the first time executive liability insurance pricing against their peers. The report compiles and assesses vital data for policy renewals on more than 500 publicly traded companies that placed D&O business through more than 65 different insurance brokers worldwide.
Decision-makers will not only have a rich resource of information to assess their comfort level with the amount and type of D&O insurance purchased, but also independent data that can serve as due diligence for important purchasing decisions. Companies participating in the 2007 Carpenter Moore D&O Peer Benchmarking Survey span a broad spectrum of industries, with market capitalization from $1 million to $70 billion, and are domiciled across 37 states and 17 countries.
Noting current market conditions Ms. Floresca commented, "We have found that there is a correlation between financial market volatility and Federal Securities class action suits. For example, the mortgage crisis led to a big jump in cases filed against financial services companies, with 28% of the total up from an average of 12% between 1997 and 2006 (Source NERA and ISS). For more information, visit http://www.nasdaq.com/newsroom/news/pr2008/classactionlawsuits.pdf.
"Most D&O market studies reference the percentage by which premiums increased or decreased in a given year, which may be a good metric of the industry, but tells an individual company almost nothing," noted Ms. Floresca. "We've developed a way to account for different limit decisions and identify a consistent metric, resulting in premium benchmarking that is meaningful."
To view the average price for the first $5 million of insurance by industry, visit http://www.nasdaq.com/newsroom/news/pr2008/2007benchmarkingsurvey.pdf.
For information on how to obtain the 2007 Carpenter Moore D&O Insurance Benchmarking Report, please contact the authors at insurance@nasdaq.com or go to www.nasdaq.net and click on "Core Services" to register.
About Carpenter Moore
Carpenter Moore Insurance Services, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Nasdaq Stock Market, Inc., and provides Executive Liability Risk Management Services to public and private companies, both directly and through a network of premier regional co-brokerage partners. Using a highly data-centric and methodical approach, Carpenter Moore advises more than 300 public companies internationally, including twelve of the companies listed on the NASDAQ-100, and thousands of private companies.
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