Distinction between the share an underwriter accepts at quoting time and the share it actually carries once the placement closes, the gap coming from signing down.
In a subscription market a risk is not carried by one company but by a queue of underwriters each taking a percentage. The written line is what the underwriter puts on the contract when the broker presents it; the signed line is what it carries once the placement closes and lines are scaled back to one hundred percent. The gap is no footnote in portfolio management: an underwriter systematically writing fifteen percent on placements cut to sixty percent builds a nine percent book, and its annual plan will be a third wrong if it reasons on written lines. Two variants stabilize the relationship. A guaranteed line escapes signing down, and it is the classical consideration for the leader's work in quoting the risk and setting terms. A conditional line, conversely, takes effect only if the placement reaches a threshold. The distinction also governs technical accounting and accumulation monitoring: exposure is measured in signed lines, never in written ones.
Specialty market underwriter, 2026 year, underwriting plan of 80M EUR of premium. Cumulative written lines over the year: 118M EUR. Average signing down observed: 31%. Signed premium: 81M EUR, so the plan is met, but capacity reserved through the year exceeded the plan by nearly fifty percent, which blocked business it could otherwise have written.
written line, signed line, part de souscription, ligne garantie, line