Arch Insurance Australia has appointed Fariha Neda (pictured) as northern region executive assurance underwriting manager, adding experienced D&O capacity at a moment when the soft financial lines market that has prevailed through 2025 is showing early signs of turning.
Neda will oversee D&O, management liability and financial institutions underwriting across New South Wales, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory, reporting to Louise Lumley, head of executive assurance.
Neda joins from FN Insurance Advisory, where she served most recently as managing director, having previously held senior underwriting roles at CFC and CGU Insurance. Earlier in her career she gained broking experience at Arthur J. Gallagher and Aon Risk Services - a dual-track background that gives her direct insight into both the underwriting and placement dynamics of the financial lines market she is now joining at a particularly active moment.
D&O premiums across Australia fell by 15% to 40% in 2025 depending on industry sector and risk profile, according to a January 2026 market update from Bellrock Advisory - reductions welcomed by businesses navigating persistent inflation and rising interest rates. Bellrock cautioned, however, that the soft market was unlikely to prevail through 2026, flagging D&O as among the first lines likely to harden, with rising shareholder derivative actions identified as a potential catalyst.
Global broker Marsh recorded a decline of approximately 10% in Pacific region financial and professional lines pricing over the third quarter of 2025, according to a March 2026 market update from The Lion Partnership, which noted that renewal outcomes were becoming increasingly differentiated by risk quality. Aon's Q4 2025 Global Insurance Market Insights described the broader commercial insurance environment as largely favourable for buyers but increasingly uneven in its outcomes, with pricing now driven more by product, industry and geography than by broad market cycles.
The underwriting environment is being further complicated by a sharp rise in corporate insolvencies. The Australian Financial Security Authority forecast personal insolvencies would reach approximately 13,400 in 2024-25, with a further rise to nearly 15,000 projected for 2025-26, according to Austcover. The construction sector recorded the highest insolvency rate among industry groups, posting a 14.4% increase year-on-year - a concentration of risk directly relevant to D&O underwriters assessing director exposure across project-heavy sectors.
Regulatory pressure is also building. Australia's Financial Accountability Regime, extended to the insurance and superannuation sectors from March 2025, has raised compliance obligations and personal accountability requirements for directors and senior executives at regulated entities - expanding the pool of individuals with material D&O exposure and the complexity of the risks underwriters are being asked to price.
