4 November 2014 Insurance

SCOR: a client-focused approach in Asia

The impact of historical catastrophe events on the market and the impact of new claims relating to events such as cyclone in India and snowstorm in Japan have been a big topic of conversation at EAIC, Michel Blanc, chief underwriting officer—treaty, global P&C, Asia Pacific for SCOR, told EAIC Today.

“The region is very fragmented—you have the mature markets, and the high growth markets. Nevertheless one of the very recurrent topics of discussion with cedants is cat exposure. About 50 percent of the large catastrophes in the world every year occur in this region,” he said.

He added that while catastrophe loss is a theme throughout the region, cedants in the more mature markets such as Japan, Australia and New Zealand have different needs compared with those in the high growth markets such as India and China.

“In mature markets, cedants look for large multi-line reinsurers capable of underwriting expertise in several lines of business and able to have a global client approach. They expect their reinsurers to bring them large capacities,” Blanc said.

“In the fast developing emerging markets the needs are a bit different—clients there look for product expertise to develop new products.

“They look for services, especially in terms of underwriting, organisation, pricing of their own products, and control of the underwriting—so they have training needs as well.”

While the mature markets are characterised by mergers & acquisitions, increased client retentions and pricing competition among reinsurers, the picture in the emerging markets is different: on the whole the penetration of non-life insurance is still very low, and a growing number of newcomers are entering the market year by year.

Usually P&C treaty reinsurance is the entry gate for insurers in emerging countries, as this is cedants’ most pressing need. Blanc said that the reinsurers that are able to address this need with adequate capacity and expertise are then able to diversify into other classes of business, including specialty lines such as agriculture.

SCOR’s strategy in these markets is to develop a customised approach for each client, leveraging its strong technical expertise, for example on cat modelling, and specialty lines such as agri, credit and surety, and engineering.

“We don’t write markets, we write companies—we look for partners,” he said.

Having been in Asia for 40 years, SCOR has local teams in eight countries and has built a strong relationship with core clients, he added.

“We have established a good strong P&C relationship over the past years and going forward we will continue to diversify.

“I believe one of the main features of reinsurance in Asia is continuity in relationships and a client-focused approach. The objective with the core clients is to go through the ups and downs of the market together.”

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