Their major obstacle is access to capital. As in other regions of the world, such as in the United States and Canada, this may cause mutual insurers to reconsider their form of ownership. Walking the Global Walk Concentration within the French primary insurance market has produced large groups capable of leveraging their size. As French insurers grow, they increasingly make decisions based on global financial issues. Multinational players operate with high underwriting capacity and can analyze multiple risks in multiple geographic regions.
Size allows companies to concentrate on profitable lines and to ride out economic cycles.
Larger groups can provide a global response not only through insurance products, but by offering financial solutions that complement insured risks. They can retain more business, making it difficult for smaller insurers to affect pricing. Smaller companies can be put on the defensive as they defend market share and niches against larger competitors. Size alone is no guarantee of success. Some insurers argue that the trend of selling all lines of products to all people in all countries using multiple distribution channels does not allow for effective controls on returns by client, product, country or distribution method.