While Lloyd’s continues to see global profits rise, the president of its Canadian market emphasizes that the best approach for the remainder of 2015 domestically lies in cautious optimism.
“We’ve exhibited fairly comfortable growth over the last several years, and we anticipate that we’ll exceed the growth rate of the industry,” said Sean Murphy, president, Lloyd’s Canada. “Our first quarter numbers were very positive and I anticipate that we’ll see that trend continuing for the rest of the year.”
But while Murphy foresees progress, he predicts that its pace will be buffered by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s recent announcement that Canada’s GDP will only expand by 1.5% this year. This is a much lower projection than the 2.6% that the organization originally predicted last November.
“We’re hoping to grow in Ontario,” he said. “I was hoping the manufacturing sector would kick in with the low Canadian dollar and increased demand from the United States. We’ve seen some of that, but not to the degree I was hoping.”
While he described the company as “holding its own” in Alberta, he acknowledged that this could quickly change course in the next five months. Other provinces, however, have been surprising in their success.
“Surprisingly, we’re doing very well in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The increases were unexpected but we’re very happy that they transpired,” he said. Both provinces are experiencing economic booms, driven largely by a trend of increased migration to the region.
Taken as a whole, Murphy believes that Canadian markets will treat commercial lines positively in 2015.
“From our aggregate perspective for Canada, we will continue to grow - not to the same degree as last year, but still at a healthy rate,” Murphy said.
