By James Jacob, Director Market Services – Davies Insurance Solutions 

In an industry built on trust, timelines and transparency, it’s easy to overlook the back-office pressure points that quietly strain relationships and balance sheets. One of the most persistent—and least publicly discussed—is premium debt: the growing backlog of unpaid premiums sitting between brokers and carriers. As the insurance market evolves and digitisation accelerates, it’s time to shine a light on what these figures really mean, and why payment performance deserves to be treated as a strategic issue, not just an operational one. 

According to data from InsurTech Diesta, Lloyd’s faced a staggering $26.5bn in outstanding premium payments at the end of 2024. Several large global brokers also reported multi-billion-dollar premium debt positions, with net debt ratios on premium receivables ranging from over 55% to nearly 80%. These figures highlight a systemic issue affecting the wider market, with lengthy settlement periods increasingly the norm in large-scale brokered business. 

Lloyd’s, for its part, has been candid about the problem. As part of its broader market transformation plans, the Corporation is prioritising initiatives like the ‘Faster Claims Payment’ programme, which aims to shorten the lifecycle of premium and claims cash flows by up to 10 weeks. That’s encouraging progress, but for insurance carriers trying to manage cash, risk, and relationships, a deeper and more nuanced understanding of premium debt is still needed. 

Beyond the headlines: What the debt data doesn’t tell you 

The Diesta figures offer a market-wide snapshot, but they don’t tell the full story. In our shared Premium Credit Control service at Davies, we go further—tracking performance at a carrier level, with granularity that includes class of business, jurisdiction, and ageing bands. We also benchmark broker payment behaviours against market averages, offering insights that help insurers understand not just how much is outstanding, but what is overdue, by how long and why. 

Some of the results are revealing. Analysis over a recent 12-month period shows that payment performance varies significantly across brokers and placement types. In some cases, only around a third of premiums were settled within five days of the due date, while others were closer to or above the market average. Open market placements often show more variation, reflecting differences in distribution chains, documentation standards, and regional settlement practices. 

Payment delays: More than a friction issue 

While delayed premium payments are often treated as a process inefficiency, they have real commercial consequences. Extended settlement durations mean carriers are holding risk without receiving corresponding income, impacting cash flow, solvency metrics and even reinsurance structures. More importantly, this is not just a broker issue—it’s a supply chain issue. 

Understanding the root causes of delay—whether it’s documentation gaps, regulatory blockers, or downstream client payment terms—is the first step in resolving them. That’s why data-led insight is so critical. At Davies, we focus not just on chasing debt, but on surfacing the patterns behind it. 

A shared responsibility, a strategic opportunity 

It’s easy to point to the big brokers when debt headlines appear, but the reality is more nuanced. These brokers are managing large and complex portfolios with layered distribution chains. Delays don’t always stem from unwillingness to pay—they’re often the result of operational inertia, misaligned expectations, or a lack of actionable visibility across the payment chain. 

By sharing analysis with carriers—including insights on payment performance by method of placement, class of business and jurisdiction—we help our clients move from blame to strategy. With this level of insight, carriers can make more informed decisions about credit risk, adjust binding authority oversight, or prioritise queries with higher cash impact. 

What’s next? 

As Lloyd’s pushes forward with Faster Claims Payment and the market edges toward greater digitalisation, there is a real opportunity to modernise how premium debt is tracked, understood and acted upon. But transformation needs to happen at all levels—from how data is collected and interpreted to how broker relationships are managed. 

For carriers, the message is clear: aged debt isn’t just a finance issue. It’s a performance issue, a capital issue, and—ultimately—a customer experience issue. Better data can’t solve it alone, but it’s the best place to start. 

*Source: Diesta data as reported by Insurance Insider, Q1 2025 

If you would like to continue the conversation, get in touch with Director, Market Services, James Jacob at james.jacob@davies-group.com