As the third-fastest growing company on a list of the world’s top 50 largest insurance companies, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. continued to rank No. 1, according to research S&P Global Market Intelligence.
State Farm recorded nearly $87.6 billion in direct premiums earned in 2023, an increase of 18.3% over the prior year. The Bloomington, Illinois-based personal insurer was also at the top of the rankings a year ago, according to a report from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
S&P GMI said the fastest-growing company was Bermuda-based Arch Capital Group. The specialty insurer and reinsurer grew gross premiums earned grow 23.1% to about $17 billion in 2023. Reinsurance was a big driver of growth at Arch, as well as Covea, which was a close second in growth at 19.4%. Covea owns PartnerRe.
In the U.S., Progressive, American Family, Berkshire Hathaway and USAA turned in high growth.
In fact, S&P said the top 50 P/C companies upped collective premiums nearly 9% in 2023 compared to 2022. The group’s gross premiums earned or insurance service revenues increased to nearly $1.5 trillion from $1.37 trillion in 2022. Only Canada’s Intact Financial Corp. had a decline in insurance service revenues.
(Editor’s Note: S&P GMI said it change it methodology from last year, which ranked based on gross premiums written. This year the financial information and analytics firm factored in IFRS 17 accounting in several countries. Gross premiums earned is more comparable with IFRS 17’s insurance service revenues.)
Other than leading the list of largest insurers, State Farm turned in one of the highest loss ratios of 85.8 in 2023, said S&P GMI. Only Aema Groupe, a group of French mutuals, reported a higher loss ratio of 86.2 in 2023.
Results may not be improving at State Farm. The insurer’s loss ratio for the homeowners line increased nearly 12 points to 94.8 in second-quarter 2024.