As predicted in our Q1 2023 Claims Update, the first half of 2023 has proven to be another busy period for our claims team. In the first five months of 2023 alone, Euclid Transactional reached settlements for claims totaling over USD 100 million. This brings total payments on claims to over USD 560 million since Euclid began underwriting in 2016. January 2023 to May 2023 is also the fastest we ever reached over USD 100 million of claims payments in one calendar year; USD 55 million more than the amount of payments made on our policies at the same time last year. This increase was expected as we are in the midst of what we predict to be the most active period for claims arising out of the very busy 2021 M&A market.
The 15 claims settled so far touch on various types of representations, with three relating to financial statements, four relating to taxes (the most common), and two claims arising out of representations relating to compliance with laws. Of the 15 claims, ten resulted in negotiated payments over USD 1M, with four of those claims above USD 15M.
Interestingly, although financial statements claims and breaches of the material customers representation typically constitute a large portion of our most severe claims, only two of the ten largest claims paid this year related to these two subject matters, and these issues constituted less than USD 10M of the payments made. While this is almost certainly an aberration (we have several large financial statements and material customer claims that we are working through with clients now), it does show that material issues can arise from all kinds of representations. For example, the four claims with payments in excess of USD 15M resulted in breaches of the Compliance with Laws, Intellectual Property, Absence of Changes, and Employment representations, respectively.
To meet the increasing demand and ensure we can continue to work quickly and collaboratively with our Insureds, Euclid’s claims team has added a new claims handler in EMEA. With this member, the claims team—already the biggest claims team fully dedicated to representations and warranties insurance—now consists of 21 full-time professionals. After an incredible start to the year, we look forward to continuing improving and closing the year out strong.
