Global cyber premiums to reach $16.3 billion in 2025: Munich Re

By Scott Vincent

April 3 - (The Insurer) - Munich Re expects global cyber insurance premiums to reach $16.3 billion in 2025 with the market on course to more than double in size by 2030, the reinsurer said in a report on Thursday.

The company said it expects cyber to remain one of the fastest growing sub-sectors of the global insurance market, but noted that cyber premium growth had slowed over the past two years.

In 2024, it said global cyber insurance premiums totalled $15.3 billion, which represented less than 1% of global P&C premium volume.

The reinsurer said it expects the cyber market to expand at an average annual growth rate of more than 10% over the next five years.

North America remains the largest cyber insurance market by region with $10.6 billion of total premiums in 2024. Munich Re said this represented 69% of global premiums.

Europe’s cyber premiums of $3.3 billion in 2024 represented a 21% share of the global total. Munich Re said the region had expanded at a compound annual growth rate of 26% since the start of the century.

The reinsurer said Europe and Asia/Oceania are expected to increase their shares of the global cyber market, with Europe expected to account for 24% of global premiums by 2027 and Asia/Oceania 8%.

Munich Re said large corporations continue to account for the majority of premiums, while small and medium-sized enterprises largely retain the risks.

The reinsurer said data breaches remained at a high level in 2024, with the average cost of a breach rising by 10% to an all-time high of $4.88 million.

Munich Re also reported a further increase in geopolitical adversaries using cyber as a means of targeting critical infrastructure, with energy, transport and telecommunications key target sectors.

Between January 2023 and January 2024, Munich Re said critical infrastructure worldwide was exposed to over 420 million attacks – an increase of 30% since 2022.