Market Bulletin Y5381 (state backed cyber-attack exclusions)

Bulletin Y5381 is a market rule, not a clause: it provides no wording, it sets the minimum requirements an exclusion must meet to be accepted. It must exclude losses arising from war, unless expressly written back; exclude state backed cyber-attacks that significantly impair the functioning of a state through their effect on its essential services or security; say whether cover is kept for assets located outside the impacted state; and set a defensible basis, agreed by both parties, for attributing the attack to a state. The LMA 5564 to 5567 model clauses, in their A versions, were drafted to meet it; the B versions, which leave out the attribution clause, raise the question of whether the fourth requirement is met in some other way. Not to be confused with the clauses themselves: the bulletin says what must be excluded, the clause says it in the contract. Where the term is read: in exchanges between the market, its syndicates and brokers at every renewal since 2023, rarely in the policy handed to the insured.