The recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan are spurring interestin the earthquake Difference In Conditions (DIC) product at V3Insurance Partner, according to President and CEO Susan Rivera.

Three weeks into the program, V3 had more than 800 submissions,she reports. “You are seeing a lot of first-time buyers.”

“We might need some more underwriters,” she says.

In addition to demand changes, Rivera is starting to see earlysigns of upward pricing movements around DIC and workers' compbusiness, she says, responding to a question about recentdiscussions surrounding a market turn.

“Everyone is thinking [DIC pricing] is going to change,” shesays. Right now, the flurry of activity is centered on severelyunderpriced accounts. “We are hearing some things [about] reallydistressed businesses increasing, but the whole Main Street has toincrease on that market.”

Rivera also reports seeing “the inklings of a turn” in theworkers' comp line—“and really recently. I'm talking about last twoweeks,” she says during an April 8 interview.

“January and February were very competitive in the workers' comparena still,” she says, suggesting this was not surprising. “That'swhat people do. Everybody knows they have a big January,” she adds,referring to the large number of policies up for renewal, “andJanuary winds up being very competitive.

Right now, she's seeing a mixture of increased pricingdiscipline sprinkled with some remnants of irrational behavior.“People are still asking for crazy discounts [through] schedulerating,” she says. “We still have a long way to go, but it doesseem like things are going to start happening.”

She continues: “Workers' comp usually is one of the first linesto change because you can't run from the results. The results arewhat they are—and eventually [insurers] say I'm not going to run117 combined ratio anymore. I can't.”