The global Surety market is on track to grow from $20.26 billion in 2024 to $31.85 billion by 2031. But industry growth doesn’t guarantee success for every player. New survey data shows that carriers and brokers embracing modernization are pulling ahead, while those weighed down by manual processes and legacy systems risk benefiting as strongly from the industry’s upswing.
The Annual Surety Industry Outlook Report – 2025 and Beyond, conducted independently by Everest Group and commissioned by Tinubu, will be released in the coming weeks. Sign up to be among the first to access the full report.
Uneven Progress, Uneven Results
The Surety market is expanding, but manual processes continue to drag down efficiency. Prolonged underwriting cycles, incomplete submissions, manual indemnity reviews, and system integration challenges between brokers and carriers all contribute to unnecessary friction.
Survey findings show a highly uneven pace of modernization—and equally uneven results. Larger firms are investing in automation, analytics, and digital portals to scale faster, while smaller players struggle with cost and complexity. The outcome: a widening productivity gap where the most efficient firms achieve 2-3 times the productivity of the least efficient.
Key Insights:
- A quarter of carriers operate with more than 10 full-time employees (FTE) per $10M premium.
- Some leading carriers process 500+ bonds per FTE.
- Practical efficiency benchmarks—by FTEs per $10M premium and bonds processed—will be shared in the full report.
This wide spread underscores a sharp divide between lean, automated firms and those still reliant on manual processes and legacy systems. Strikingly, some insurers don’t even track efficiency metrics— pointing to a deeper lack of focus on operational performance.
Closing the Gap
The modernization gap is more than an operational inconvenience—it’s becoming a competitive divider. Closing it will require carriers and brokers to address data management, digital integration, and underwriting speed.
Firms that act now will not only scale efficiently but also improve competitiveness and client experience. Those who delay risk being left behind as the market continues its upward trajectory.
Be the first to access the full survey when it goes live—sign up to get the complete Annual Surety Industry Outlook Survey – 2025 and Beyond.
