In good news for commercial insurance customers, Marsh’s August 2015 “Global Insurance Market Quarterly Briefing” found that commercial rates decreased around the world in most lines of business. According to the report, the decrease for the ninth consecutive quarter generally can be attributed to competitive market conditions, characterized by an abundance of global capacity and a lack of large insured loss activity resulting in reported underwriting results with favorable combined ratios.

Although decreases were seen across regions and in most major lines of business, “notable exceptions” were seen in specialized coverages led by a firming Cyber insurance market. The report found that the Asia-Pacific region experienced the largest composite rate decrease, followed by the U.K., Continental Europe, Latin America and the U.S.

Property insurance showed the largest rate declines in the second quarter—greater than 5% on average. Asia-Pacific and Continental Europe led the rate decreases, which occurred across all regions. Casualty insurance rates, on average, decreased more moderately than Property, according to the report, ranging from flat to down 5%. This trend was consistent across all major regions, although Asia-Pacific, as it did in the first quarter 2015, had the largest decrease, followed by the U.K.