The U.S. and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran on February 28, and the shockwaves reached well beyond the battlefield — straight into the policy documents that corporate finance teams had long taken for granted. From Houston to Singapore, companies exposed to energy markets, international freight, and global supply chains are discovering that their insurance coverage contains exclusions they never anticipated. The gap between holding a policy and actually being protected, legal and insurance specialists warn, has rarely been wider.
In brief
- —Joint U.S.-Israel attack on Iran triggered global insurance repricing
- —Rerouting costs around Cape of Good Hope mostly not covered
- —Cyber, sanctions and war clauses blocking many corporate claims
A market already under pressure when the missiles flew
Before February 28, the commercial insurance market was deep into what Andrew George, president of Marsh Specialty, describes as an unusual cycle. Insurers had been broadly profitable for two or three years, which attracted fresh capital and pushed premiums steadily lower across most lines. "There’s a bit of a spiral right now where prices are coming down and down and down," George says.
