NU Online News Service, Feb. 7, 11:36 a.m.EST

The beginning of 2011 was much like the end of 2010 for the softmarket, as rates continued to decrease moderately, according toMarketScout’s monthly barometer.

For the third month in a row, average property and casualtyrates decreased 5 percent, even though one segment of the marketdid not see as sharp a decrease as other segments.

“Underwriters on small accounts, those under $25,000 [premium],are not pricing nearly as aggressively as large accountunderwriters,” said Richard Kerr, chief executive officer of theDallas-based electronic insurance exchange in a statement. “Smallaccount rate reductions were down only 1 percent, while accountspaying a premium over $1 million enjoyed rate reductions averaging6 percent.”

Over the past three months, small accounts have been the leastcompetitive of accounts, with November showing a decrease of 2percent and December down 3 percent.

Larger accounts have shown decreases of around 5 to 6 percentover the past three months.

Both medium size accounts (premium between $25,001-$250,000) andlarge accounts ($250,001-$1 million), experienced decreases of 5percent.

By coverage class, property wasdown the sharpest at 5 percent for the third month in a row.General liability was also down 5 percent, slightly off its 6percent decrease for the previous two months.

No class of business witnessed rate increases, but workers’compensation, professional liability, directors and officersliability, employers professional liability insurance, fiduciaryand surety were all down just 1 percent.

Turning to industry class, manufacturing and service were down 5percent, while energy was down 4 percent. The other four coverageclasses listed—contracting, habitational, public entity andtransportation—were all down 3 percent in the month.

Of the seven industry classes, manufacturing and service haveremained consistent at 5 percent down over the past threemonths.

Contracting has seen a gradual change from down 5 percent inNovember to down 3 percent in January.

Energy has softened a bit, going from down 2 percent in Novemberand December to down 4 percent in January.

In an financial analyst’s note, Meyer Shields with StifelNicolaus said while rate hardening is not occurring yet, the recentstabilization “indicates that carriers don’t have significantwiggle room left” on premium pricing. He said as “fading reservereleases” compress margins there should be appreciable upwardmomentum in rates by mid-2012.