New York agents’ say they are pleased with property-casualty carriers of all sizes, but showed the most approval for super regional companies, according to a new survey.

The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York recently released its “Industry Index,” polling members and non-members on carrier performance. The index was previously reported in Winter 2008.

For the Summer 2009 results, the survey indicated that approval ratings for companies conducting business in New York rose by 3.6 points for commercial insurance and 1.7 points for personal insurance over the Winter 2008 results.

“Super regional companies,” those writing insurance in multiple states but not operating nationwide, saw the biggest gains in the survey, rising 6.3 points in commercial insurance and 4.3 points in personal lines. Smaller regional companies improved 1.1 points in commercial insurance and 2.3 points in personal and large national companies gained 1.5 points in commercial insurance and showed a slight decline (0.1) point from the winter results.

“For the first time since the inception of the IIABNY Industry Index, we saw improvements in nearly every category,” said Kathy Weinheimer, IIABNY’s senior vice-president of industry relations and education, in a statement. “Insurance companies have worked hard to improve the agent experience, and these results show that those efforts are paying off.”

In the detailed study category “underwriters are empowered, responsive and consistent,” scores for commercial lines increased 2 points, mainly through a 5.9 positive point increase by super regional carriers, according to the IIABNY. Personal lines scores in the category dropped minus 0.8 points with national carriers showing a decline of minus 3.1 points.

Scores improved in both commercial and personal lines in the category “keeps its promises, treats me and my customers with honesty and fairness” as well as “treats our relationship as a real partnership.”

The survey was conducted during May and June, with 210 agents (202 IIABNY members, 8 non-members) responding to the survey. The index represents about 200 different agencies and 10% of the IIABNY membership, according to the agents’ group.