NorthStandard reports strong results and strategic momentum
(Posted on 29/05/26)
NorthStandard has reported strong financial results, continued strategic progress and enhanced support for shipowners operating in an increasingly complex and uncertain global environment.
Global marine insurer NorthStandard has reported a strong set of financial results in its Annual Review 2026, as it pushes forward with its strategy to grow geographic reach and service capability.
The P&I club reported total premium income of US$938m for the 2025/26 insurance year, up 5.8% on the $886m it earned in the previous year. In 2025, investments returned a robust 9.5% and free reserves increased by $123m to reach $923m, strengthening capital coverage above Standard & Poor’s “AAA” level.
NorthStandard’s underwriting performance also improved in 2025, with a combined ratio of 105.5%, against 114% in the previous year, based on an average year for pool claims compared to an extraordinary 2024 and a reduction in the number and value of large NorthStandard claims.
Three years after the merger of North P&I and The Standard Club, NorthStandard has delivered against the objectives set out at the time of the merger, including the strong development of its specialty lines, new offices, expanded resources and new partnerships to further improve its service offering for Members. At the same time, the club has preserved the distinctive Member-centric approach that characterised the clubs in the past. As Managing Director Paul Jennings noted, “Our teams invest time to understand each Member’s world, and we apply our expertise and judgment to find tailored solutions where traditional approaches sometimes fall short.”
Increased scale and deeper financial foundations have allowed the club to respond to a maritime world where geopolitical risk has “increasingly shaped the day to day operating environment for shipowners”, the Club’s Annual Review notes.
“We’ve reevaluated the impact geopolitics make on the business — and reorientated the Club to deal with these complexities as the norm,” said Managing Director Jeremy Grose, reflecting on wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, stop-go tariffs and sanctions.
The position of P&I clubs “at the intersection of commerce, law and geopolitics” had been highlighted by events in the Strait of Hormuz, added Grose. The club provided a vast amount of guidance to Members on a wide range of claims and more general enquiries, while its enhanced war risks capability provided Members with further support.
On sanctions, the club has also invested to create an even stronger service for Members. “We are a service-based business and Members come first, which is why we’ve built a dedicated sanctions capability reporting into the General Counsel,” commented Paul Jennings. “Sanctions risk is not a front line underwriting ‘add on’ but a central governance and risk discipline. Some of our most experienced people are in specialist positions where their judgement on high-stakes decisions matters most.”
A collaboration with the Royal United Services Institute also highlighted how EU/G7 sanctions policies had created a growing fleet of sanctioned, elderly, commercially impaired vessels which could not be scrapped, added Jennings. “This unintended consequence raises profound issues around seafarer welfare and of course the environment.”
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