Importance of Singapore as risk hub grows
“The Asian insurance market remains very vibrant, with a number of domestic markets developing, plus a growing reinsurance market,” Chris Panes, chief executive officer, Asia, of loss adjuster Crawford & Company, told SIRC Today.
He said the markets continue to attract new entrants, especially Singapore. He also said he believes that a new player will secure a licence to write reinsurance business in Singapore from next year, which he describes as being a major new addition to the market.
Panes added that the development of Singapore as a risk transfer hub was paving the way for this growth.
“The importance of Singapore as a regional market continues to grow. It has developed itself into a Lloyd’s-style marketplace. Singapore’s regulators have created a user-friendly location for insurers, and Lloyd’s itself regards it as a key marketplace. Twelve to 14 years ago there were three Lloyd’s syndicates there. Now there are 24,” he said.
He added that the market is mature in the way it views and handles claims. Crawford has a presence across 12 countries in the region, from India to Japan. It has large operations in what he calls the sophisticated markets of Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia but sees opportunities in some of the less developed places.
“One untapped market where no-one has any representation currently is Myanmar (Burma), which has a population of 50 million people, but which is very undeveloped,” he said. “The three big Japanese insurers have licences there, but we might not see any progress until the upcoming November elections there are over.”
He adds that China also has enormous potential, due to the sheer number of people there.
“It is the second largest insurance market in the world, mostly concentrated in motor insurance, but insurance penetration rates are remarkably low.
“A good example of this was provided by the recent Tianjin disaster, where there was a great deal of commercial insurance claims, but not so much in terms of domestic insurance,” he said.
