Risky business: Data on trading results for UK general insurance firms during and after the global financial crisis

Abstract

This article contains dataset on the trading results for UK general insurance industry performance during and after the global financial crisis. The data covers the net written premiums by line of business and trading results for UK general insurance firms over a decade period (2007–2016). Additionally, the data comprises areas that are peculiar to evaluate general insurance business such as net written premiums, underwriting results, claims incurred, investment income and trading results which makes it important to investigate the probability of default of different business lines and insolvency risk. The data presented could serve as useful tool to supervise local insurance firms and take earlier action in the case of risky firms before they breach solvency capital requirements. The data are useful to evaluate growth performance of UK non-life insurance industry which can be compare with other countries. Likewise, the data analysis can allow for measurement of insurance firms competitiveness and detect systemic risk which may disrupt the financial industry. The uniqueness of this data is its focus on insurance business as risky which is an area where Solvency II concentrates on as a risk-based approach to prevent the failure of insurance firms. The failure of insurance companies may disrupt the financial industry, increase systemic risk and affect negatively the real economy. Therefore, the extent to which the determinants of insolvency risk for UK general insurance firms can be established the better the attractiveness of the sector and improve risk regulation.