Howden's 2025 credit and political risk insurance report

Opportunity in flux

2025 is proving to be a milestone year for trade and security, with a highly uncertain outlook in our increasingly fractured world.

In recent years we have seen a global pandemic, the outbreak of several wars, commodity shocks and higher inflation. Now, geopolitical and macroeconomic forces are converging to reset decision-making.

But opportunity is the key takeaway to emerge from our report. Whilst the pace of news flow can be overwhelming – intensifying geopolitical rivalries, trade (and broader policy) uncertainty and competition for critical minerals are analysed in our report – credit and political risk insurance (CPRI) exists to help clients trade and invest through times of elevated uncertainty by protecting their assets and lowering their cost of capital when committing to investments.

Rising appetite for CPRI

Despite the challenging macro backdrop, the CPRI market continues to outperform most other lines of business.

The CPRI market has unparalleled experience of operating in fluid environments and, as our proprietary analysis shows, has recorded industry-leading results over the last decade. Even the series of economic and geopolitical shocks in recent years has done little to hold back performance, with underwriting results over the last decade rivalling the best in the market.

And with a premium base of US$49 billion, spanning six distinct product segments across the CPRI and surety market, it surpasses most other specialty product lines.