Thursday 7 March 2024

• Chaos continues in the Chinese property market with Country Garden hit by a winding up order, but S&P Global Ratings says that Asia Pac insurers have limited real estate exposure.

• Smaller Chinese insurers may have outsized real estate investments but in general the sector is cushioned from the property sector downturn.

• A number of Japan’s life firms have US commercial real estate investments which could comes under pressure as vacancies rise.

• P&C premium growth across Asia Pac is likely to average at around 4% over the next 12 months says the ratings agency.

• QBE survey highlights a gap between SME concerns and insurance coverage in Singapore.

• Survey involved 605 SME leaders from Dec 2023 to Jan 2024.

• Top SME challenges: increasing costs (50%), sales growth (40%), and competition (39%).

• Major concerns: business interruption (77%), liability (74%), and loss of staff (74%).

• Only 22% have business interruption insurance; 15% are covered for loss of key staff.

• There is a shift towards traditional insurance purchasing channels, with 66% preferring offline transactions.

• Kay International AMEA establishes wholly-owned subsidiary in Singapore.

• The Dubai-headquartered reinsurance broker and MGA is looking to expand its facultative and treaty reinsurance broking and placement services to Southeast Asia.

• Singapore joins Dubai and Miami as strategic regional hubs for the company.

• Ho Wing Hoong appointed as Regional CEO and Director of Singapore subsidiary.

• Descartes Underwriting registered as insurance broker in Japan.

• Japan faces frequent natural catastrophes, such as typhoons, earthquakes, and tsunamis, however the parametric segment is still in its relative infancy.

• Registration paves way MGA to expand presence of parametric solutions for corporate risk management in the country.

• The Insurance Brokers Code Compliance Committee (IBCCC) warned brokers about inaccuracies in reporting breaches and complaints.

• IBCCC said it will increase scrutiny on brokers' reporting practices ahead of Annual Compliance Statements submission.

• Committee has also published guidance to aid brokers in complying with reporting requirements.

• Oscar Shub, Chair of IBCCC, stressed importance of transparency and accountability in brokers' reports as part of maintaining consumer trust.

• IRDAI has imposed a two-year ban on Confiance International Reinsurance Brokers.

• The ban, effective from 22 Feb 2024, follows an investigation into a transaction involving crop insurance risk for TATA-AIG General Insurance.

• IRDAI said Confiance and local affiliate, GMC, had provided fraudulent reinsurance slips and kept premiums for an extended period without obtaining reinsurance cover.

• Original 2020 ban was overturned by the Securities Appellate Tribunal, leading to most recent investigation.

• Allianz Trade launches Allianz Trade pay, a new B2B e-commerce payment solution.

• Service provides suite of e-commerce services, including trade credit insurance, fraud risk management, digital buyer onboarding, and instant financing.

• It includes e-commerce credit insurance for real-time non-payment risk coverage and coverage against financial losses from identity theft.

• It also introduces a buyer onboarding solution using open-banking technologies and a database of over 83m companies to simplify KYB process during checkout.

Takahashi takes on the role from the retiring Emiko Maki and part of his responsibilities will be to strengthen the link between P&C and reinsurance operations.

Morrow has been with Chubb for 15 years in various leadership positions and is promoted from his role as Head of Property and Casualty (P&C) for Chubb NZ.

Marshall joins from QBE where he was Group Chief Actuary.