Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE:MMC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

John Doyle: Yes. Thanks, Bob. We’re not going to comment on individual clients and the work that we do for individual clients. So as Nick talked about a couple of different times on this call, we have an increasingly diverse set of offerings that we think is more resilient, and we’re very, very pleased with the growth at Oliver Wyman through three quarters. Again, quarter-to-quarter, we could see more volatility and expect to see more volatility at Oliver Wyman’s top-line than our other businesses. But we also expect Oliver Wyman to grow faster over a medium term and longer term. And that’s certainly been the case. That’s been the case in this year, and we expect it to be the case over the longer term. Do you have a follow-up?

Scott Heleniak: Yes, sure. So, one more thing very quickly. Regarding your cyber insurance practice. I know you mentioned that the cyber insurance pricing growth is slowing down a little bit. There had been a few relatively large headline cyber incidents as well as some cyber claims, namely in the casino gaming area as well as the government, and other areas. Do you expect the current slowdown in cyber pricing maybe just sort of in a soft patch? But do you expect that pricing growth to rebound back? Or do you think the cyber insurance pricing will just kind of stay where it is right now?

John Doyle: Bob, what I — again, the most important point to make here is it’s our job to find efficient risk financing solutions for our clients. So, what I would say is, yes, there’s been some major breaches that will drive some insured losses in the marketplace. There’s also been an increase, again, in the number of ransomware claims that’s — that have happened during the course of this year. But I would also note that the underwriting community has reacted to growing ransomware claims over the course of the last couple of years through higher attachment points. The market is also — the underwriting market is also reacting to possible systemic events that could aggregate losses in their portfolios. We’re, of course, helping them at Guy Carpenter and at the same time, working with Marsh to build better solutions for that.

But the market’s been restricting coverage for systemic type events. And so that’s a factor in that marketplace as well. And so, I don’t think the market will move meaningfully based on a couple of losses. But we have some work to do collectively to help in a digital economy. When I say collectively, I mean the royal we, the entire marketplace, in coming up with better solutions to help clients manage the risks — cyber-related risks in a digital economy. Thank you.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Ryan Tunis with Autonomous Research.

Ryan Tunis : So, some competitors have like very specifically highlighted pressures — organic growth pressures in the U.S. from D&O capital markets-related transactions. You mentioned it briefly. Just curious, when we look at your U.S., Canada within Marsh, is there any reason to believe that you guys wouldn’t be wearing a headwind of similar magnitude?

John Doyle: Thanks, Ryan, for the question. Yes, I think Martin pointed this out. There’s — I can’t talk about relative exposure. But clearly, capital market volatility, the rising cost of capital, M&A activity is down. IPO activity is down. SPACs are down. DSPACs down, all those kinds of things that drive risk and create opportunities for us to offer advice and solutions are under some pressure. And somewhat related to that, as Martin also noted earlier, pricing is down as well. And so those are headwinds. But again, we have a well-diversified business in the United States. We help our clients manage a wide range of risks. And broadly speaking, again, the cost of risk continues to rise for the factors that I mentioned earlier on the call.