Our consistent underwriting strategy to deploy its capacity and expertise where we know we add value has delivered 22% growth in gross premiums. Having taken continued underwriting action over the last three years in order to address underperformance, changing exposures particularly in respect of social inflation, preparation for an expected economic downturn, and then in response to the onset of the pandemic, we have benefited from stronger than expected rate increases in certain areas, without being over-exposed to those recession-prone liability lines in which pricing has not caught up with the scale of the expected future losses.
We achieved good rate increases across all classes, platforms and territories, with most significant hardening in cyber in response to ransomware.
The cyber insurance market continues to battle against the scourge of ransomware claims but, as we said at our first quarter trading update, our approach to tackling the underlying causes of losses is positively impacting claims frequency. Emerging data on business written since October 2020 suggests that claims frequency is 20% lower by policy count. Further, when comparing frequency to premiums, the reduction is around 50%. We maintain our emphasis on tackling the proximate cause of these losses by expanding our risk management services and working with clients to build resilience and reduce exposure. This, combined with our market experience and carefully executed reinsurance programme, underpin our strong market position. Ransomware, and cyber crime more generally, is both a societal as well as an insurance issue. We welcome the attention it is attracting at the highest levels and take very seriously the significant contribution we can make in building society's resilience to ransomware and cyber risk more broadly.
The storms which affected large parts of the South Central and Western areas of the US impacted our combined ratio however, good investment returns were achieved against market conditions that reflected the ongoing but more manageable level of uncertainty that the pandemic now brings.
Business overview
Following significant restructuring over the past two years, the Marine book made a strong start to the year benefiting from solid rate increases averaging 10%. As the cycle turned we were able to deploy significant capital to support the opportunity in the marine market. Gross premiums written increased year on year by 10% to $194.1m (H1 2020: $176.3m). While growth and rate were most favourable in Hull, Cargo and Aviation, it is pleasing to see all areas gained ground. Our overall claims experience was benign in the first half of the year.
Within our Political, Accident and Contingency division, overall gross premium growth of 3% was achieved with premiums increasing to $154.8m (H1 2020: $150.8m) driven by the Life, Accident and Health lines as well as rate increases of 6%. The Contingency book continues to experience the residual effects of the pandemic, despite the gradual return of conferences, concerts and sporting events in some parts of the world. It is encouraging to see innovative approaches to staging 'trial' and safe events.
Our Cyber & Executive Risk business continues to rise to the challenge of building innovative solutions and improved services to protect our clients and help manage their intangible risks. Gross premium reached $548.8m (H1 2020: $419.6m), an increase of 31%, shaped by ongoing rate increases of 44% across the portfolio. Having repositioned ourselves away from areas particularly exposed to the pandemic or recession, strong premium growth in executive risk has been tempered by our more reserved underwriting strategy in cyber where we are benefiting from strong rate rises whilst at the same time reducing our exposure by selecting only those risks which met certain enhanced risk management criteria. However, our Directors' & Officers' (D&O) book has started to reap the benefits of our carefully executed strategic underwriting plan where we have captured opportunities as they arise. The launch of our tailored policy for carefully selected Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) demonstrated how we identify market developments and pivot to meet client demand.
The Specialty Lines division also experienced strong rate increases in 2021 with gross premium up 29% on the first half of 2020 at $610.7m (H1 2020 $472.0m) and an average rate increase of 13%. Our International Financial Institutions and Management Liability portfolios particularly benefited both from a continued hard market and the broadening distribution network across our international offices. Our growing international footprint is timely as demand for our specialist products builds in the face of quite firm market conditions. Diverse in nature, our Specialty Lines book has seen solid growth across multiple territories, notably within mainland Europe and Asia. As we increase the footprint of our Miscellaneous Medical and Life Sciences offerings, growth continues to exceed expectations, particularly our digital health solution, Virtual Care, as consumers become more comfortable with accessing healthcare and wellness services remotely.
Our Market Facilities division, established 18 months ago, has made good progress in the first half of this year through Beazley Smart Tracker, Beazley's follow-only special purpose syndicate, which aims to drive efficiency within the London market. The book is on course to hit its plan this year with 12% rate increase and half year gross premium at $88.8m (H1 2020: $60.7m), growing by 46%. A planned Economic, Social and Governance (ESG) Consortium that aims to provide additional capacity to clients that perform particularly well against ESG metrics will sit within this division when it begins underwriting in January 2022, subject to approvals.
Our Property book experienced good underlying growth with gross premiums written increasing 18% to $276.6m (H1 2020: $233.5m) with rate increases of around 10%. The positive result was dampened by the storms which affected large parts of the South Central and Western areas of the US in the first quarter, which added an estimated $70m loss net of reinsurance to the book split between our Property and Reinsurance portfolios. The team's consistent focus on selective underwriting has resulted in improved attritional claims performance. During the first half of 2021, we concluded a loss portfolio transfer arrangement for the Construction and Engineering book which we exited in 2018. This transaction has reduced our net earned premium and resulted in a one-off inflationary effect on the claims and expense ratio for the division.
Significant rate increases in the first quarter within our Reinsurance book ebbed slightly in the second quarter as soft conditions within the primary admitted market meant reduced demand at the Florida renewal season compared to 2020.Overall, rates were up 12%. Both gross premium growth of 7% to $161.5m (H1 2020: $151.0m) and attritional loss activity are improving in line with expectations as we rebalance the portfolio away from higher frequency primary excess catastrophe exposed risk towards our core offering of higher excess reinsurance.
Executive management change
In a world of accelerated change, we had some of our own developments to convey to the market. On a personal level it was a great honour to succeed Andrew Horton as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in April following his decision to depart for pastures new after 18 years at Beazley. Having had the pleasure of working closely with Andrew as a member of the executive team for 13 years, I've been closely involved with the shaping of our strategic direction for some time and look forward to successfully executing against those plans.
I am also delighted my new role has created new opportunities, not least the appointment of a new Chief Underwriting Officer(s). I want to thank Bethany Greenwood and Tim Turner who, in addition to their day jobs, agreed to become co-interim Chief Underwriting Officers until a permanent appointment is made.
Following the formation of Beazley Digital under our longstanding Chief Operating Officer (COO), Ian Fantozzi, we have appointed Troy Dehmann as our new COO. We are thrilled to have Troy on board, who brings a wealth of experience to the COO role. And finally, Rob Anarfi was appointed as Chief Risk Officer following Andrew Pryde's departure in May. Our new leadership team combines long-term Beazley leadership experience with fresh approaches and expertise to build and enhance our strategy and business.
Outlook
That the easing of some pandemic-related restrictions seems to be in sight across the globe is cause for great optimism and those of us still working remotely look forward to reconnecting and a further return to greater normality. However, the economic, social and environmental impacts are still unfolding. In this fragile risk environment it is essential we make good on our commitments to our clients and partners to support them through these times. This means paying their claims efficiently, beating their expectations when it comes to service delivery and doing the right thing by society as a responsible business.
In the midst of another turbulent year, we are positive that through the hard work and diligence of our colleagues we can deliver on our ambitions to build profitable growth in markets where we demonstrate value, instigate constructive change and build long-term collaborative relationships with our clients and partners. That premium exposure growth accelerated in the second quarter against consistently good rate is a sign of the strength in our strategy. Our current expectations of percentage growth for the full year is in the mid-20s gross of reinsurance and mid-teen digits net of reinsurance. We maintain our previous guidance of a full year combined ratio percentage in the low nineties, assuming average claims in the second part of 2021.
As the pandemic recovery beds in, we confidently anticipate more growth against our selective, specialist and carefully executed strategy supported by a strong capital base and a diversified investment portfolio. Our capital surplus remains within our preferred range after allowing for our initial view of the business plan for 2022, and the board remains committed to a dividend payment at year end after taking into account the 2021 results as a whole.