Total maximum amount the insurer commits to pay for all losses of a given category over the policy period, regardless of the number of events that occur.
The aggregate (or aggregate limit) is the overall limit of an insurer's commitment over a defined period, generally the underwriting year. It differs from the per-loss or per-occurrence limit: the per-occurrence limit caps indemnification for a single event, while the aggregate caps the sum of all indemnifications over the period. In a cyber policy, the aggregate is a critical parameter due to the correlation and accumulation risk: a single cause (zero-day vulnerability, state-backed cyber operation) can generate multiple losses for the same insured within the same period. In LMA 5565, the write-back mechanism for non-systemic cyber operations is conditioned on setting two limits: a per-cyber-operation limit and an aggregate limit for the insurance period. If these amounts are not specified in the policy, LMA 5565 states that no coverage is granted for those cyber operations, effectively turning the clause into a total exclusion. This parameterization requirement is one of the most operationally important features for the underwriter to understand.
An underwriter uses LMA 5565A for a commercial cyber policy. They fail to fill in the amounts at articles 2.1 and 2.2 (per-operation limit and aggregate). In the event of a non-systemic state-backed cyber loss, the insured will discover at claims time that residual coverage is nil: the clause behaves like LMA 5564. This is a major underwriting malpractice risk.
limite agrégée, aggregate limit, plafond annuel, limite globale, limite d'engagement annuel