Beazley: pick & choose in Asia

Specialist re/insurer Beazley has a very distinct approach to countries in Asia, reflecting the particular social and economic development in each country, Lucien Mounier, head of Asia-Pacific, and Nicholas Tey, regional manager, Asia, at Beazley told SIRC Today.

From its office in Singapore, Beazley looks at business across treaty, marine, property, specialty lines and political risks and contingency.

Opportunities in Asia-Pacific can be driven by a specific territory, a specific way to trade or a specific product, Mounier said.

“From a product perspective, specialty lines is an area where we have a lot of potential,” he said. The other division where Beazley is optimistic is political risks and contingency where the firm can leverage niche expertise and products, for example in deadly weapons or event cancellation, he added.

For its liability products, Beazley finds demand particularly in territories with more sophisticated regulatory frameworks and mature insurance sectors.

“Countries in Asia are at different development stages of legislation,” Tey said. “For liability-based products we tend to target markets where legislation is more mature such as Singapore, and Hong Kong, where liability is being enforced on management.

“There we see growing demand for our products.”

Similarly, for cyber risk, Singapore has an established regulatory framework looking after data privacy and critical information assets, Mounier explained.

“That looks very different three hours away by plane in Thailand, where such regulation is nowhere near that level,” he noted.

Each country needs distinct products, he explained.

“China’s Belt and Road Initiative is driving opportunity more from political risk and marine perspectives,” he added.

The Belt and Road Initiative is a Chinese plan to connect Asia, Africa and Europe and is expected to cost more than $1 trillion while including 71 countries that account for half the world’s population and a quarter of global gross domestic product.