Latin America an important part of Lloyd’s growth strategy
Latin America is an important part of Lloyd’s future growth strategy, according to Juan Carlos Realphe G, Lloyd’s Colombia general representative. “Lloyd’s is opening representative offices in Colombia and Mexico, providing valuable capability and expertise to local markets and across the region,” he said.
“Latin America is a fast-growing and developing market with low levels of insurance penetration, which means there are many opportunities but also some challenges for the insurance industry.”
Improved stability and the emergence of a collection of dynamic cities with growing pools of consumers and talent continue to attract investment to Latin America, he added.
“There is a significant amount of capital investment in infrastructure projects to meet the growing demands of the population across the region.
“The source and prospects for economic growth varies from country to country. However, the biggest challenge across the region is how to achieve strong yet sustainable growth. Efforts to achieve this will focus on education, innovation and infrastructure development—areas where the re/insurance industry can make a positive contribution by offering solutions to protect new businesses and assets across the region and sharing our risk insights.”
The outlook for the Latin American insurance market is positive, he added: insurance growth has more than doubled the average economic growth rates over the past two years and this is expected to continue in the medium term.
“Insurance penetration rates are currently around 3 percent, so there is significant opportunity for further growth.
“On the other hand, the Latin American insurance market is struggling with the same soft market dynamics as other regions of the world. There is an excess of reinsurance capacity and coverages are widening while rates are falling. We mustn’t forget this is a region with catastrophe exposures,” he said.
