Commercial-lines agents and brokers say pricing continued tomoderate in the fourth quarter, a trend seen throughout 2013,according to the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers' latestquarterly pricing survey.

Pricing was up on average by 2.1% in 2013's fourthquarter compared to the previous quarter, CIAB says. In thethird quarter, rates were up by 3.4% over rates in the secondquarter. Rates icreased by 4.3% in the second quarter and by5.2% in the first quarter.

Small accounts saw the steepest increases in the fourth quarter,at 2.6%. In the third quarter, small accounts increased by 3.8%.Medium accounts saw fourth-quarter increases of 2.4%, compared to3.7% in the third quarter, and large accounts were up by 1.4% inthe fourth quarter compared to 2.6% in the third.

Workers' compensation risks experienced the greatest increases,at 4.9%, although CIAB notes that brokers' experiences varied“depending on location and circumstances.” California, CIAB notes,saw “fairly significant rate increases” in workers' comp.

Surety bonds increased the least, at 0.9%, followed bycommercial-property at 2.1%. Sixteen percent of commercial propertyrisks experienced rate decreases in the quarter, according to thesurvey, the most of any line.

Ken A. Crerar, CIAB president and CEO, says, “We didn't see anysignificant changes in the last quarter, which is not surprising.Underwriting seems to have remained disciplined.”

He adds that new capacity “helped dampen pricing a bit lastquarter,” and that, combined with low catastrophe exposures,“added up to a more stable pricing environment overall.”

Agents and brokers also say carriers' appetite for new businesswas healthy and aggressive in the fourth quarter, CIAB says.