Political violence and terrorism — PV&T — is one of those classes that quietly does its job until it suddenly does not. The last twelve months across parts of West and Southern Africa have reminded markets that low-frequency does not mean low-severity. Pricing, wordings and aggregation discipline are all in a different place than they were a year ago.
What the events told carriers
The losses themselves were not uniformly insured — that's a feature of the class, not a bug. But the events made three things visible to carriers:
- SRCC (strikes, riots, civil commotion) aggregation matters more than the headline terrorism event. Multi-day civil unrest produces material loss accumulation that single-event terrorism cover does not always capture.
- Wording precision is paying off — or punishing slack drafting. Events that fell in the gaps between "riot," "civil commotion" and "insurrection" produced more dispute than expected. Markets are tightening definitions accordingly.
- Business interruption inside PV&T is being repriced. Indirect losses — denial of access, downstream supply impact — are where many of the harder-to-settle claims sat. Carriers want clearer triggers.
What the new normal looks like
For African cedants buying PV&T cover into 2027, expect:
- Sharper questions on aggregation. Carriers want to understand exposure concentration at suburb and asset level, not just city level.
- Cleaner event definitions. Wordings that were comfortably ambiguous in 2024 are being rewritten with more precision around what counts as a single event.
- Capacity available, but selective. Markets have not retreated — they have re-priced. Well-presented risks, particularly with strong loss control, are placing.
PV&T is a class where the wording is the product. Spending time on definitions before binding is far cheaper than discovering them after a loss.
Structuring tips
We've found three structuring conversations especially useful with cedants this season:
- Separating SRCC from terrorism explicitly, with distinct sub-limits and triggers, so accumulations are visible.
- Reviewing BI extensions for trigger clarity — particularly denial-of-access and downstream interruption.
- Coordinating with property programmes so the PV&T cover does not silently overlap or leave gaps with the core property treaty.
If you have a PV&T renewal coming or a new programme to structure, we're happy to walk the wording. Reach the desk at underwriting@anchorrisktransfer.com.
