Zurich Insurance Group has got its hopes up as far as commercial insurance pricing is concerned – something the major insurer has not felt in a long while.

Current market conditions are helping reverse declining commercial insurance premiums, with the combination of inadequate supply and higher disaster payouts giving providers leverage come renewal time.

“The last time this kind of market really existed was in 2002,” Bloomberg cited Zurich’s commercial insurance chief executive James Shea as saying in an interview.

“You are seeing not just improving terms and changing premiums, you are also seeing reductions in capacity available in the market.”

For instance, according to Shea, their January renewals are up by as much as 40% for some accounts. The commercial insurance CEO, however, concedes that we’ll have to wait for years before prices return to more favorable levels.

In late 2019 Zurich revealed new targets to increase operating profit and earnings per share in the coming three years, and rate hikes are set to contribute.