Insurance professionals still expect a bumper bonus despite the downturn, according to new research.

The research from, financial and legal recruiter GRS, found that 52% of insurance professionals expect the same or a bigger bonus than last year, while 72% predict they will still receive a bonus.

Insurance professionals think their bonus will be 17% higher, while 10% predict their bonus will double.

Simon Crabb, head of UK Insurance at GRS, says: “These results need to be taken in context. In London, less than a third of financial services professionals expect this year’s bonus to match or exceed last year’s payouts.  Whereas more than half of insurance professionals when polled expected their 2008 bonus to match or exceed last year’s.  Insurance is proving as resilient as you can get in this downturn.  Bonus expectations are higher in insurance than in other sectors of the city such as tax, legal and risk management, all of which are typically less vulnerable in a downturn than insurance - let alone comparisons with investment banking where expectations historically are so strong but not so now.”